Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2018 January 3

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January 3

Is there any operational system with linux kernel that dont package managenement/repositories?

Is there any operational system with linux kernel that dont package managenement/repositories?
I was thinking about using a linux kernel operating system, I tested some but at all you had to download from repositories, I felt like I was at some distopian world where programs need to be authorized by some entity to be able to be downloaded from.201.79.59.255 (talk) 23:08, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

On any linux system, you can install software without using the native repository system. Just download source code and compile it yourself. Is that what you're wanting to do? CodeTalker (talk) 23:16, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

I'm not sure what you mean by "authorized by some entity": Linux repositories and package managers like dpkg attempt to manage the dependencies that inevitably arise when hundreds of source contributors rely on one another's work. You can certainly do that yourself, buy why would you want to? OldTimeNESter (talk) 23:59, 3 January 2018 (UTC)

There's nothing to stop you from downloading the source tarball for any program you want. You can then use gzip -dc program-source.gz && ./configure && make && sudo make install to build and install the package. If you do this then you'll probably find that you need to install build-dependencies for your new program to build, which you'll have to download and build yourself before you re-attempt building the original program. You might have to do this recursively several times. You may also find that two different programs need different, incompatible versions of the same dependency. The whole point of package managers is to remove this hassle. LongHairedFop (talk) 19:16, 4 January 2018 (UTC)

Package repositories are for convenience and security. Every Linux package manager I'm aware of allows you to install packages from sources other than the official repository; for example, on Debian, you can download a Debian package yourself from wherever you wish and install it with apt/dpkg on your system. You can even create your own Debian packages. This may take a bit of fiddling and some computer knowledge. Linux from Scratch walks you through manually building a GNU/Linux system yourself, hence there's no package manager. However, this is intended as a learning exercise. You'll understand why if you try it, as it's quite time-consuming, and, without a package manager, updating any software has to be done by you manually, though I believe there is an "unofficial" add-on package manager for people who want to actually use LFS as an "operational" system. --47.157.122.192 (talk) 20:46, 4 January 2018 (UTC)