Will this leave any dirty things in my linux if something goes wrong when installing the tarball?
Monday, July 26th, 2010 at
14:36
I am new to linux.
When you install an application, after you extract it to a folder, you then type "./configure" to start the configuration before you type "make install" to actually begin the installation, right?
If some error messages comes out during the configuration, then I change my mind, not to install this application. Would the configuration step already have left some dirty things in my linux?
Dirty things mean something like the registry entries in windows.
Thank you very much for your help.
Tagged with: configuration step • dirty things • error messages • Linux • registry entries
Filed under: Linux Applications
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In basic terms, running the configure script just checks out your system, sets up the application ready for installing and generates a Makefile. It doesn’t install or compile anything and the output will either be the Makefile (if successful) or nothing (if unsuccessful) – it shouldn’t leave anything else lying around. However, it’s good practice after installing software to type "make clean", this will get rid of any files generated that aren’t needed following the build and installation.
Nothing should be placed anywhere outside the source directory until you run make install.
It is possible that a bad configure or make script will put somewhere somewhere it shouldn’t be though.