GNU Stow

GNU Stow is a program for managing the installation of software packages, keeping them separate (/usr/local/stow/emacs vs. /usr/local/stow/perl, for example) while making them appear to be installed in the same place (/usr/local).

You can read the Stow manual (52k characters) on-line.

Stow is a Perl script which should run correctly under Perl 5.005 and above. You must install Perl before running Stow. For more information about Perl, see http://www.perl.com/perl/.

Stow was inspired by Carnegie Mellon's Depot program, but is substantially simpler. Whereas Depot requires database files to keep things in sync, Stow stores no extra state between runs, so there's no danger (as there is 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). Stow is free software, licensed under the GNU General Public License.

• Changes in version 1.3.3:
  • Now requires Perl 5.005 or later
  • Initially empty directories are not removed anymore
  • Removed buggy fastcwd (we use POSIX::getcwd instead)
  • Fixed bug when the common Parent of Target dir and Stow dir was "/"
  • Fixed bug when handling directories named "0"
  • Stow now only warns the user if a directory is unreadable during unstowing.
• Changes in version 1.3:
  • Added --restow option.
  • Fixed handling of slashes in package names.
  • Expanded configure-time search for Perl binary.
• Changes in version 1.2:
  • Dependency on `pwd' removed.
  • Perl 4 compatibility fixes.
  • Manual expanded even more.
• Changes in version 1.1:
  • Long and short options now accepted.
  • Manual expanded.
  • `make clean' removes stow (which is generated from stow.in).

Please mail questions and comments to help-stow@gnu.org, and bug reports to bug-stow@gnu.org. For information regarding Stow development, check out our Savannah page.

Please send FSF & GNU inquiries & questions to gnu@gnu.org. There are also other ways to contact the FSF.

Please send comments on these web pages to webmasters@www.gnu.org, send other questions to gnu@gnu.org.

Copyright (C) 1996 Bob Glickstein
Copyright (C) 2001 Guillaume Morin

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