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Is it better to compile from source or to install from a .deb package?

I've just installed conky from a source code, the advantage that I see is that I have the newest version (1.9 instead of 1.8 from repo). The disadvantage - to uninstall I have to remove sth from /usr/ I think, but I'm not sure. Are there any other disadvantages/advantages?

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marked as duplicate by Jorge Castro, jokerdino, John S Gruber, ajmitch, Marco Ceppi Aug 21 '12 at 18:09


2 Answers 2

up vote 2 down vote accepted

Well i can say compiling from source is an unsupported method of installing software because it bypasses the Package Management System (APT, USC) completely.

Also it affects system Stability, could break other dependencies . Since Ubuntu Packagers makes sure its all round effectiveness and integration to current system remains intact , therefore installing from official Repositories is recommended.

Also for further reading , refer this and this.

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I marked it as an answer, cause it is basically what I was looking for. But sometimes (like in conky example) official repositories just aren't enough. –  Benjamin Jun 27 '12 at 9:51
Glad that it helped , for conky i mostly depend on this Link . –  atenz Jun 27 '12 at 9:54

When installing from source, it will typically install into /usr/local/ rather than /usr (so as not to install conflict with system libraries. This is typically picked up first in paths, so what's in /usr/local/ will always be used first. So if you upgrade and get a newer conky from Ubuntu, when you try to run it, it'll run the old one from /usr/local/ instead. (This can get particularly confusing with libraries...)

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