[Unbound-users] a shell script to switch concurrent installed Unbound versions

[Carsten Strotmann]

On 11/20/10 8:42 PM, Florian Lohoff wrote:
>
>> https://otrs.menandmice.com/otrs/public.pl?Action=PublicFAQ&CategoryID=21&ItemID=97
> I thought this is the use case stow was invented for?
>
> Flo
> PS: http://www.gnu.org/software/stow/ or apt-get install stow
Hello Florian,

thanks for pointing out "stow". I was not aware of "stow" (there are
many hidden gems in the open source world).

However after having read the documentation, it seems that "stow" is not
a full replacement for what we do. It seems to install packages (from
source) into its own separate directory (same as we do) and then
symlinking it into the usual directories (like /usr/local/sbin/unbound).
It does no seem to support multiple versions of the same software
installed at the same time, and not switching between versions. "stow"
is also designed to work with source packages, while we work with RPM,
DEB and Solaris PKG for easy binary installations. With "stow"
symlinking into the usual directories, there is also the danger of an OS
update or a manual compilation run to overwrite the links created by
"stow" (or even worse, following the symlinks and alter the original
binaries).

The idea of the Men & Mice packages is to use the OS package system but
to install into a place where the binaries are save for OS updates and
manual installs of the same software. The "switchunbound" script is
rather simple, it just switches one directory symlink.

But "stow" is a good new addition to my toolbox, I'm glad to know about
it (now). Can be useful.

-- Carsten