What is the difference between yum, apt-get, rpm, ./configure && make install

Posted by Saif Bechan on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Saif Bechan
Published on 2010-03-31T02:27:25Z Indexed on 2010/04/22 13:13 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 191

Filed under:

linux

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package-management

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yum

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rpm

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compile

I am new to Linux and am running CentOs. When I want to update or install certain software I came across three ways.

Sometimes it's:

yum install program
rpm -i program.rpm
wget program.tar.gz > unpack > ./configure > make > make install

That last one is a real pain, esp when you come from windows where a program install is usually one click and then a nice guide.

Now can someone please explain to me:

Why are there so many different ways to do this?
Which one do you recommend to use and why?
Are there any other ways for installing programs?

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