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This manual describes GNU Stow 1.3.3, a program for managing the installation of software packages.
1. Introduction Description of Stow. 2. Terminology Terms used by this manual. 3. Invoking Stow Option summary. 4. Installing packages Using Stow to install. 5. Deleting packages Using Stow to uninstall. 6. Caveats Pitfalls and difficulties to beware. 7. Bootstrapping When stow and perl are not yet stowed. 8. Reporting bugs How, what, where, and when to report. 9. Known bugs Don't report any of these. GNU General Public License Copying terms. Index Index of concepts.
-- The Detailed Node Listing ---
Caveats
6.1 Compile-time and install-time Faking out `make install'. 6.2 Multiple stow directories Further segregating software. 6.3 Conflicts When Stow can't stow.
Compile-time and install-time
6.1.1 GNU Emacs 6.1.2 Other FSF software 6.1.3 Cygnus software 6.1.4 Perl and Perl 5 modules
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Stow is a tool for managing the installation of multiple software packages in the same run-time directory tree. One historical difficulty of this task has been the need to administer, upgrade, install, and remove files in independent packages without confusing them with other files sharing the same filesystem space. For instance, it is common to install Perl and Emacs in `/usr/local'. When one does so, one winds up with the following files(1) in `/usr/local/man/man1': `a2p.1'; `ctags.1'; `emacs.1'; `etags.1'; `h2ph.1'; `perl.1'; and `s2p.1'. Now suppose it's time to uninstall Perl. Which man pages get removed? Obviously `perl.1' is one of them, but it should not be the administrator's responsibility to memorize the ownership of individual files by separate packages.
The approach used by Stow is to install each package into its own tree, then use symbolic links to make it appear as though the files are installed in the common tree. Administration can be performed in the package's private tree in isolation from clutter from other packages. Stow can then be used to update the symbolic links. The structure of each private tree should reflect the desired structure in the common tree; i.e. (in the typical case) there should be a `bin' directory containing executables, a `man/man1' directory containing section 1 man pages, and so on.
Stow was inspired by Carnegie Mellon's Depot program, but is substantially simpler and safer. Whereas Depot required database files to keep things in sync, Stow stores no extra state between runs, so there's no danger (as there was in Depot) of mangling directories when file hierarchies don't match the database. Also unlike Depot, Stow will never delete any files, directories, or links that appear in a Stow directory (e.g., `/usr/local/stow/emacs'), so it's always possible to rebuild the target tree (e.g., `/usr/local').
For information about the latest version of Stow, you can refer to http://www.gnu.org/software/stow/.
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A package is a related collection of files and directories that you wish to administer as a unit--e.g., Perl or Emacs--and that needs to be installed in a particular directory structure--e.g., with `bin', `lib', and `man' subdirectories.
A target directory is the root of a tree in which one or more packages wish to appear to be installed. A common, but by no means the only such location is `/usr/local'. The examples in this manual will use `/usr/local' as the target directory.
A stow directory is the root of a tree containing separate packages in private subtrees. When Stow runs, it uses the current directory as the default stow directory. The examples in this manual will use `/usr/local/stow' as the stow directory, so that individual packages will be, for example, `/usr/local/stow/perl' and `/usr/local/stow/emacs'.
An installation image is the layout of files and directories required by a package, relative to the target directory. Thus, the installation image for Perl includes: a `bin' directory containing `perl' and `a2p' (among others); an `info' directory containing Texinfo documentation; a `lib/perl' directory containing Perl libraries; and a `man/man1' directory containing man pages.
A package directory is the root of a tree containing the installation image for a particular package. Each package directory must reside in a stow directory--e.g., the package directory `/usr/local/stow/perl' must reside in the stow directory `/usr/local/stow'. The name of a package is the name of its directory within the stow directory--e.g., `perl'.
Thus, the Perl executable might reside in `/usr/local/stow/perl/bin/perl', where `/usr/local' is the target directory, `/usr/local/stow' is the stow directory, `/usr/local/stow/perl' is the package directory, and `bin/perl' within is part of the installation image.
A symlink is a symbolic link. A symlink can be relative or absolute. An absolute symlink names a full path; that is, one starting from `/'. A relative symlink names a relative path; that is, one not starting from `/'. The target of a relative symlink is computed starting from the symlink's own directory. Stow only creates relative symlinks.
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The syntax of the stow
command is:
stow [options] package ... |
The stow directory is assumed to be the current directory, and the
target directory is assumed to be the parent of the current directory
(so it is typical to execute stow
from the directory
`/usr/local/stow'). Each package is the name of a package in
the stow directory (e.g., `perl'). By default, they are installed
into the target directory (but they can be deleted instead using
`-D').
The options are:
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The default action of Stow is to install a package. This means creating symlinks in the target tree that point into the package tree. Stow attempts to do this with as few symlinks as possible; in other words, if Stow can create a single symlink that points to an entire subtree within the package tree, it will choose to do that rather than create a directory in the target tree and populate it with symlinks.
For example, suppose that no packages have yet been installed in `/usr/local'; it's completely empty (except for the `stow' subdirectory, of course). Now suppose the Perl package is installed. Recall that it includes the following directories in its installation image: `bin'; `info'; `lib/perl'; `man/man1'. Rather than creating the directory `/usr/local/bin' and populating it with symlinks to `../stow/perl/bin/perl' and `../stow/perl/bin/a2p' (and so on), Stow will create a single symlink, `/usr/local/bin', which points to `stow/perl/bin'. In this way, it still works to refer to `/usr/local/bin/perl' and `/usr/local/bin/a2p', and fewer symlinks have been created. This is called tree folding, since an entire subtree is "folded" into a single symlink.
To complete this example, Stow will also create the symlink `/usr/local/info' pointing to `stow/perl/info'; the symlink `/usr/local/lib' pointing to `stow/perl/lib'; and the symlink `/usr/local/man' pointing to `stow/perl/man'.
Now suppose that instead of installing the Perl package into an empty target tree, the target tree is not empty to begin with. Instead, it contains several files and directories installed under a different system-administration philosophy. In particular, `/usr/local/bin' already exists and is a directory, as are `/usr/local/lib' and `/usr/local/man/man1'. In this case, Stow will descend into `/usr/local/bin' and create symlinks to `../stow/perl/bin/perl' and `../stow/perl/bin/a2p' (etc.), and it will descend into `/usr/local/lib' and create the tree-folding symlink `perl' pointing to `../stow/perl/lib/perl', and so on. As a rule, Stow only descends as far as necessary into the target tree when it can create a tree-folding symlink.
The time often comes when a tree-folding symlink has to be undone because another package uses one or more of the folded subdirectories in its installation image. This operation is called splitting open a folded tree. It involves removing the original symlink from the target tree, creating a true directory in its place, and then populating the new directory with symlinks to the newly-installed package and to the old package that used the old symlink. For example, suppose that after installing Perl into an empty `/usr/local', we wish to install Emacs. Emacs's installation image includes a `bin' directory containing the `emacs' and `etags' executables, among others. Stow must make these files appear to be installed in `/usr/local/bin', but presently `/usr/local/bin' is a symlink to `stow/perl/bin'. Stow therefore takes the following steps: the symlink `/usr/local/bin' is deleted; the directory `/usr/local/bin' is created; links are made from `/usr/local/bin' to `../stow/emacs/bin/emacs' and `../stow/emacs/bin/etags'; and links are made from `/usr/local/bin' to `../stow/perl/bin/perl' and `../stow/perl/bin/a2p'.
When splitting open a folded tree, Stow makes sure that the symlink it is about to remove points inside a valid package in the current stow directory. Stow will never delete anything that it doesn't own. Stow owns everything living in the target tree that points into a package in the stow directory. Anything Stow owns, it can recompute if lost. Note that by this definition, Stow doesn't "own" anything in the stow directory or in any of the packages.
If Stow needs to create a directory or a symlink in the target tree and it cannot because that name is already in use and is not owned by Stow, then a conflict has arisen. See section 6.3 Conflicts.
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When the `-D' option is given, the action of Stow is to delete a package from the target tree. Note that Stow will not delete anything it doesn't "own". Deleting a package does not mean removing it from the stow directory or discarding the package tree.
To delete a package, Stow recursively scans the target tree, skipping over the stow directory (since that is usually a subdirectory of the target tree) and any other stow directories it encounters (see section 6.2 Multiple stow directories). Any symlink it finds that points into the package being deleted is removed. Any directory that contained only symlinks to the package being deleted is removed. Any directory that, after removing symlinks and empty subdirectories, contains only symlinks to a single other package, is considered to be a previously "folded" tree that was "split open." Stow will re-fold the tree by removing the symlinks to the surviving package, removing the directory, then linking the directory back to the surviving package.
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This chapter describes the common problems that arise with Stow.
6.1 Compile-time and install-time Faking out `make install'. 6.2 Multiple stow directories Further segregating software. 6.3 Conflicts When Stow can't stow.
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Software whose installation is managed with Stow needs to be installed in one place (the package directory, e.g. `/usr/local/stow/perl') but needs to appear to run in another place (the target tree, e.g., `/usr/local'). Why is this important? What's wrong with Perl, for instance, looking for its files in `/usr/local/stow/perl' instead of in `/usr/local'?
The answer is that there may be another package, e.g., `/usr/local/stow/perl-extras', stowed under `/usr/local'. If Perl is configured to find its files in `/usr/local/stow/perl', it will never find the extra files in the `perl-extras' package, even though they're intended to be found by Perl. On the other hand, if Perl looks for its files in `/usr/local', then it will find the intermingled Perl and `perl-extras' files.
This means that when you compile a package, you must tell it the location of the run-time, or target tree; but when you install it, you must place it in the stow tree.
Some software packages allow you to specify, at compile-time, separate locations for installation and for run-time. Perl is one such package; see 6.1.4 Perl and Perl 5 modules. Others allow you to compile the package, then give a different destination in the `make install' step without causing the binaries or other files to get rebuilt. Most GNU software falls into this category; Emacs is a notable exception. See 6.1.1 GNU Emacs, and 6.1.2 Other FSF software.
Still other software packages cannot abide the idea of separate installation and run-time locations at all. If you try to `make install prefix=/usr/local/stow/foo', then first the whole package will be recompiled to hardwire the `/usr/local/stow/foo' path. With these packages, it is best to compile normally, then run `make -n install', which should report all the steps needed to install the just-built software. Place this output into a file, edit the commands in the file to remove recompilation steps and to reflect the Stow-based installation location, and execute the edited file as a shell script in place of `make install'. Be sure to execute the script using the same shell that `make install' would have used.
(If you use GNU Make and a shell [such as GNU bash] that understands
pushd
and popd
, you can do the following:
pushd dir
.
popd
.
Then find other lines in the output containing cd
or make
commands and rewrite or delete them. In particular, you should be able
to delete sections of the script that resemble this:
for i in dir_1 dir_2 ...; do \ (cd $i; make args ...) \ done |
Note, that's "should be able to," not "can." Be sure to modulate these guidelines with plenty of your own intelligence.)
The details of stowing some specific packages are described in the following sections.
6.1.1 GNU Emacs 6.1.2 Other FSF software 6.1.3 Cygnus software 6.1.4 Perl and Perl 5 modules
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Although the Free Software Foundation has many enlightened practices regarding Makefiles and software installation (see see section 6.1.2 Other FSF software), Emacs, its flagship program, doesn't quite follow the rules. In particular, most GNU software allows you to write:
make make install prefix=/usr/local/stow/package |
If you try this with Emacs, then the new value for prefix
in the
`make install' step will cause some files to get recompiled with
the new value of prefix
wired into them. In Emacs 19.23 and
later,(2)
the way to work around this problem is:
make make install-arch-dep install-arch-indep prefix=/usr/local/stow/emacs |
In 19.22 and some prior versions of Emacs, the workaround was:
make make do-install prefix=/usr/local/stow/emacs |
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The Free Software Foundation, the organization behind the GNU project, has been unifying the build procedure for its tools for some time. Thanks to its tools `autoconf' and `automake', most packages now respond well to these simple steps, with no other intervention necessary:
./configure options make make install prefix=/usr/local/stow/package |
Hopefully, these tools can evolve to be aware of Stow-managed packages, such that providing an option to `configure' can allow `make' and `make install' steps to work correctly without needing to "fool" the build process.
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Cygnus is a commercial supplier and supporter of GNU software. It has also written several of its own packages, released under the terms of the GNU General Public License; and it has taken over the maintenance of other packages. Among the packages released by Cygnus are `gdb', `gnats', and `dejagnu'.
Cygnus packages have the peculiarity that each one unpacks into a directory tree with a generic top-level Makefile, which is set up to compile all of Cygnus' packages, any number of which may reside under the top-level directory. In other words, even if you're only building `gnats', the top-level Makefile will look for, and try to build, `gdb' and `dejagnu' subdirectories, among many others.
The result is that if you try `make -n install prefix=/usr/local/stow/package' at the top level of a Cygnus package, you'll get a bewildering amount of output. It will then be very difficult to visually scan the output to see whether the install will proceed correctly. Unfortunately, it's not always clear how to invoke an install from the subdirectory of interest.
In cases like this, the best approach is to run your `make install prefix=...', but be ready to interrupt it if you detect that it is recompiling files. Usually it will work just fine; otherwise, install manually.
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Perl 4.036 allows you to specify different locations for installation and for run-time. It is the only widely-used package in this author's experience that allows this, though hopefully more packages will adopt this model.
Unfortunately, the authors of Perl believed that only AFS sites need this ability. The configuration instructions for Perl 4 misleadingly state that some occult means are used under AFS to transport files from their installation tree to their run-time tree. In fact, that confusion arises from the fact that Depot, Stow's predecessor, originated at Carnegie Mellon University, which was also the birthplace of AFS. CMU's need to separate install-time and run-time trees stemmed from its use of Depot, not from AFS.
The result of this confusion is that Perl 5's configuration script doesn't even offer the option of separating install-time and run-time trees unless you're running AFS. Fortunately, after you've entered all the configuration settings, Perl's setup script gives you the opportunity to edit those settings in a file called `config.sh'. When prompted, you should edit this file and replace occurrences of
inst.../usr/local... |
with
inst.../usr/local/stow/perl... |
You can do this with the following Unix command:
sed 's,^\(inst.*/usr/local\),\1/stow/perl,' config.sh > config.sh.new mv config.sh.new config.sh |
Hopefully, the Perl authors will correct this deficiency in Perl 5's configuration mechanism.
Perl 5 modules--i.e., extensions to Perl 5--generally conform to a set of standards for building and installing them. The standard says that the package comes with a top-level `Makefile.PL', which is a Perl script. When it runs, it generates a `Makefile'.
If you followed the instructions above for editing `config.sh' when Perl was built, then when you create a `Makefile' from a `Makefile.PL', it will contain separate locations for run-time (`/usr/local') and install-time (`/usr/local/stow/perl'). Thus you can do
perl Makefile.PL make make install |
and the files will be installed into `/usr/local/stow/perl'. However, you might prefer each Perl module to be stowed separately. In that case, you must edit the resulting Makefile, replacing `/usr/local/stow/perl' with `/usr/local/stow/module'. The best way to do this is:
perl Makefile.PL find . -name Makefile -print | \ xargs perl -pi~ -e 's,^(INST.*/stow)/perl,$1/module,;' make make install |
(The use of `find' and `xargs' ensures that all Makefiles in the module's source tree, even those in subdirectories, get edited.) A good convention to follow is to name the stow directory for a Perl module `cpan.module', where `cpan' stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a collection of FTP sites that is the source of most Perl 5 extensions. This way, it's easy to tell at a glance which of the subdirectories of `/usr/local/stow' are Perl 5 extensions.
When you stow separate Perl 5 modules separately, you are likely to encounter conflicts (see section 6.3 Conflicts) with files named `.exists' and `perllocal.pod'. One way to work around this is to remove those files before stowing the module. If you use the `cpan.module' naming convention, you can simply do this:
cd /usr/local/stow find cpan.* \( -name .exists -o -name perllocal.pod \) -print | \ xargs rm |
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If there are two or more system administrators who wish to maintain software separately, or if there is any other reason to want two or more stow directories, it can be done by creating a file named `.stow' in each stow directory. The presence of `/usr/local/foo/.stow' informs Stow that, though `foo' is not the current stow directory, and though it is a subdirectory of the target directory, nevertheless it is a stow directory and as such Stow doesn't "own" anything in it (see section 4. Installing packages). This will protect the contents of `foo' from a `stow -D', for instance.
When multiple stow directories share a target tree, the effectiveness of Stow is reduced. If a tree-folding symlink is encountered and needs to be split open during an installation, but the symlink points into the wrong stow directory, Stow will report a conflict rather than split open the tree (because it doesn't consider itself to own the symlink, and thus cannot remove it).
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If, during installation, a file or symlink exists in the target tree and has the same name as something Stow needs to create, and if the existing name is not a folded tree that can be split open, then a conflict has arisen. A conflict also occurs if a directory exists where Stow needs to place a symlink to a non-directory. On the other hand, if the existing name is merely a symlink that already points where Stow needs it to, then no conflict has occurred. (Thus it is harmless to install a package that has already been installed.)
A conflict causes Stow to exit immediately and print a warning (unless `-c' is given), even if that means aborting an installation in mid-package.
When running Stow with the `-n' or `-c' options, no actual filesystem-modifying operations take place. Thus if a folded tree would have been split open, but instead was left in place because `-n' or `-c' was used, then Stow will report a false conflict, since the directory that Stow was expecting to populate has remained an unpopulatable symlink.
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Suppose you have a stow directory all set up and ready to go: `/usr/local/stow/perl' contains the Perl installation, `/usr/local/stow/stow' contains Stow itself, and perhaps you have other packages waiting to be stowed. You'd like to be able to do this:
cd /usr/local/stow stow -vv * |
but stow
is not yet in your PATH
. Nor can you do this:
cd /usr/local/stow stow/bin/stow -vv * |
because the `#!' line at the beginning of stow
tries to
locate Perl (usually in `/usr/local/bin/perl'), and that won't be
found. The solution you must use is:
cd /usr/local/stow perl/bin/perl stow/bin/stow -vv * |
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Please send bug reports to the author, Bob Glickstein, by electronic mail. The address to use is `<bobg+stow@zanshin.com>'. Please include:
Before reporting a bug, please read the manual carefully, especially 9. Known bugs, and 6. Caveats, to see whether you're encountering something that doesn't need reporting, such as a "false conflict" (see section 6.3 Conflicts).
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Copyright © 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document, but changing it is not allowed. |
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The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it. By contrast, the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software--to make sure the software is free for all its users. This General Public License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation's software and to any other program whose authors commit to using it. (Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by the GNU Library General Public License instead.) You can apply it to your programs, too.
When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for this service if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know you can do these things.
To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of the software, or if you modify it.
For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their rights.
We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the software.
Also, for each author's protection and ours, we want to make certain that everyone understands that there is no warranty for this free software. If the software is modified by someone else and passed on, we want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original, so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original authors' reputations.
Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by software patents. We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will individually obtain patent licenses, in effect making the program proprietary. To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for everyone's free use or not licensed at all.
The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and modification follow.
Activities other than copying, distribution and modification are not covered by this License; they are outside its scope. The act of running the Program is not restricted, and the output from the Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program (independent of having been made by running the Program). Whether that is true depends on what the Program does.
You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee.
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This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to be a consequence of the rest of this License.
Each version is given a distinguishing version number. If the Program specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and "any later version", you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation. If the Program does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation.
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If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these terms.
To do so, attach the following notices to the program. It is safest to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively convey the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least the "copyright" line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
one line to give the program's name and an idea of what it does. Copyright (C) 19yy name of author This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. |
Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice like this when it starts in an interactive mode:
Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 19yy name of author Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type `show w'. This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; type `show c' for details. |
The hypothetical commands `show w' and `show c' should show the appropriate parts of the General Public License. Of course, the commands you use may be called something other than `show w' and `show c'; they could even be mouse-clicks or menu items--whatever suits your program.
You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or your school, if any, to sign a "copyright disclaimer" for the program, if necessary. Here is a sample; alter the names:
Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program `Gnomovision' (which makes passes at compilers) written by James Hacker. signature of Ty Coon, 1 April 1989 Ty Coon, President of Vice |
This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into proprietary programs. If your program is a subroutine library, you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the library. If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General Public License instead of this License.
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[Top] | [Contents] | [Index] | [ ? ] |
As of Perl 4.036 and Emacs 19.22.
As I write this, the current version of Emacs is 19.31.
[Top] | [Contents] | [Index] | [ ? ] |
1. Introduction
2. Terminology
3. Invoking Stow
4. Installing packages
5. Deleting packages
6. Caveats
6.1 Compile-time and install-time7. Bootstrapping
6.1.1 GNU Emacs6.2 Multiple stow directories
6.1.2 Other FSF software
6.1.3 Cygnus software
6.1.4 Perl and Perl 5 modules
6.3 Conflicts
8. Reporting bugs
9. Known bugs
GNU General Public License
PreambleIndex
How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs
[Top] | [Contents] | [Index] | [ ? ] |
1. Introduction
2. Terminology
3. Invoking Stow
4. Installing packages
5. Deleting packages
6. Caveats
7. Bootstrapping
8. Reporting bugs
9. Known bugs
GNU General Public License
Index
[Top] | [Contents] | [Index] | [ ? ] |
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