473 lines
20 KiB
Groff
473 lines
20 KiB
Groff
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.\" ========================================================================
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.\"
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.IX Title "stow 8"
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.TH stow 8 2023-11-02 "perl v5.38.0" "User Contributed Perl Documentation"
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.\" For nroff, turn off justification. Always turn off hyphenation; it makes
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.\" way too many mistakes in technical documents.
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.if n .ad l
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.nh
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.SH NAME
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stow \- manage farms of symbolic links
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.SH SYNOPSIS
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.IX Header "SYNOPSIS"
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stow [ options ] package ...
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.SH DESCRIPTION
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.IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
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This manual page describes GNU Stow 2.3.2\-fixbug56727. This is not the
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definitive documentation for Stow; for that, see the accompanying info
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manual, e.g. by typing \f(CW\*(C`info stow\*(C'\fR.
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.PP
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Stow is a symlink farm manager which takes distinct sets of software
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and/or data located in separate directories on the filesystem, and
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makes them all appear to be installed in a single directory tree.
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.PP
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Originally Stow was born to address the need to administer, upgrade,
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install, and remove files in independent software packages without
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confusing them with other files sharing the same file system space.
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For instance, many years ago it used to be common to compile programs
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such as Perl and Emacs from source. By using Stow, \fI/usr/local/bin\fR
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could contain symlinks to files within \fI/usr/local/stow/emacs/bin\fR,
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\&\fI/usr/local/stow/perl/bin\fR etc., and likewise recursively for any
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other subdirectories such as \fI.../share\fR, \fI.../man\fR, and so on.
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.PP
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While this is useful for keeping track of system-wide and per-user
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installations of software built from source, in more recent times
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software packages are often managed by more sophisticated package
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management software such as rpm, dpkg, and Nix / GNU Guix, or
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language-native package managers such as Ruby's gem, Python's pip,
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Javascript's npm, and so on.
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.PP
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However Stow is still used not only for software package management,
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but also for other purposes, such as facilitating a more controlled
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approach to management of configuration files in the user's home
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directory, especially when coupled with version control systems.
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.PP
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Stow was inspired by Carnegie Mellon's Depot program, but is
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substantially simpler and safer. Whereas Depot required database files
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to keep things in sync, Stow stores no extra state between runs, so
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there's no danger (as there was in Depot) of mangling directories when
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file hierarchies don't match the database. Also unlike Depot, Stow
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will never delete any files, directories, or links that appear in a
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Stow directory (e.g., \fI/usr/local/stow/emacs\fR), so it's always
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possible to rebuild the target tree (e.g., \fI/usr/local\fR).
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.PP
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Stow is implemented as a combination of a Perl script providing a CLI
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interface, and a backend Perl module which does most of the work.
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.SH TERMINOLOGY
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.IX Header "TERMINOLOGY"
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A "package" is a related collection of files and directories that
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you wish to administer as a unit \-\- e.g., Perl or Emacs \-\- and that
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needs to be installed in a particular directory structure \-\- e.g.,
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with \fIbin\fR, \fIlib\fR, and \fIman\fR subdirectories.
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.PP
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A "target directory" is the root of a tree in which one or more
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packages wish to \fBappear\fR to be installed. A common, but by no means
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the only such location is \fI/usr/local\fR. The examples in this manual
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page will use \fI/usr/local\fR as the target directory.
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.PP
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A "stow directory" is the root of a tree containing separate
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packages in private subtrees. When Stow runs, it uses the current
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directory as the default stow directory. The examples in this manual
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page will use \fI/usr/local/stow\fR as the stow directory, so that
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individual packages will be, for example, \fI/usr/local/stow/perl\fR and
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\&\fI/usr/local/stow/emacs\fR.
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.PP
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An "installation image" is the layout of files and directories
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required by a package, relative to the target directory. Thus, the
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installation image for Perl includes: a \fIbin\fR directory containing
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\&\fIperl\fR and \fIa2p\fR (among others); an \fIinfo\fR directory containing
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Texinfo documentation; a \fIlib/perl\fR directory containing Perl
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libraries; and a \fIman/man1\fR directory containing man pages.
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.PP
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A "package directory" is the root of a tree containing the
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installation image for a particular package. Each package directory
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must reside in a stow directory \-\- e.g., the package directory
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\&\fI/usr/local/stow/perl\fR must reside in the stow directory
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\&\fI/usr/local/stow\fR. The "name" of a package is the name of its
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directory within the stow directory \-\- e.g., \fIperl\fR.
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.PP
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Thus, the Perl executable might reside in
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\&\fI/usr/local/stow/perl/bin/perl\fR, where \fI/usr/local\fR is the target
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directory, \fI/usr/local/stow\fR is the stow directory,
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\&\fI/usr/local/stow/perl\fR is the package directory, and \fIbin/perl\fR
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within is part of the installation image.
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.PP
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A "symlink" is a symbolic link. A symlink can be "relative" or
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"absolute". An absolute symlink names a full path; that is, one
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starting from \fI/\fR. A relative symlink names a relative path; that
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is, one not starting from \fI/\fR. The target of a relative symlink is
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computed starting from the symlink's own directory. Stow only creates
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relative symlinks.
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.SH OPTIONS
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.IX Header "OPTIONS"
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The stow directory is assumed to be the value of the \f(CW\*(C`STOW_DIR\*(C'\fR
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environment variable or if unset the current directory, and the target
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directory is assumed to be the parent of the current directory (so it
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is typical to execute \fIstow\fR from the directory \fI/usr/local/stow\fR).
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Each \fIpackage\fR given on the command line is the name of a package in
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the stow directory (e.g., \fIperl\fR). By default, they are installed
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into the target directory (but they can be deleted instead using
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\&\f(CW\*(C`\-D\*(C'\fR).
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.IP \-n 4
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.IX Item "-n"
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.PD 0
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.IP \-\-no 4
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.IX Item "--no"
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.IP \-\-simulate 4
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.IX Item "--simulate"
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.PD
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Do not perform any operations that modify the filesystem; merely show
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what would happen.
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.IP "\-d DIR" 4
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.IX Item "-d DIR"
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.PD 0
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.IP \-\-dir=DIR 4
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.IX Item "--dir=DIR"
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.PD
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Set the stow directory to \f(CW\*(C`DIR\*(C'\fR instead of the current directory.
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This also has the effect of making the default target directory be the
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parent of \f(CW\*(C`DIR\*(C'\fR.
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.IP "\-t DIR" 4
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.IX Item "-t DIR"
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.PD 0
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.IP \-\-target=DIR 4
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.IX Item "--target=DIR"
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.PD
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Set the target directory to \f(CW\*(C`DIR\*(C'\fR instead of the parent of the stow
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directory.
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.IP \-v 4
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.IX Item "-v"
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.PD 0
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.IP \-\-verbose[=N] 4
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.IX Item "--verbose[=N]"
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.PD
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Send verbose output to standard error describing what Stow is
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doing. Verbosity levels are from 0 to 5; 0 is the default.
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Using \f(CW\*(C`\-v\*(C'\fR or \f(CW\*(C`\-\-verbose\*(C'\fR increases the verbosity by one; using
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`\-\-verbose=N' sets it to N.
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.IP \-S 4
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.IX Item "-S"
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.PD 0
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.IP \-\-stow 4
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.IX Item "--stow"
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.PD
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Stow the packages that follow this option into the target directory.
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This is the default action and so can be omitted if you are only
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stowing packages rather than performing a mixture of
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stow/delete/restow actions.
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.IP \-D 4
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.IX Item "-D"
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.PD 0
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.IP \-\-delete 4
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.IX Item "--delete"
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.PD
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Unstow the packages that follow this option from the target directory rather
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than installing them.
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.IP \-R 4
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.IX Item "-R"
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.PD 0
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.IP \-\-restow 4
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.IX Item "--restow"
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.PD
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Restow packages (first unstow, then stow again). This is useful
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for pruning obsolete symlinks from the target tree after updating
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the software in a package.
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.IP \-\-adopt 4
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.IX Item "--adopt"
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\&\fBWarning!\fR This behaviour is specifically intended to alter the
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contents of your stow directory. If you do not want that, this option
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is not for you.
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.Sp
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When stowing, if a target is encountered which already exists but is a
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plain file (and hence not owned by any existing stow package), then
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normally Stow will register this as a conflict and refuse to proceed.
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This option changes that behaviour so that the file is moved to the
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same relative place within the package's installation image within the
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stow directory, and then stowing proceeds as before. So effectively,
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the file becomes adopted by the stow package, without its contents
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changing.
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.IP \-\-no\-folding 4
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.IX Item "--no-folding"
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Disable folding of newly stowed directories when stowing, and
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refolding of newly foldable directories when unstowing.
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.IP \-\-ignore=REGEX 4
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.IX Item "--ignore=REGEX"
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Ignore files ending in this Perl regex.
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.IP \-\-defer=REGEX 4
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.IX Item "--defer=REGEX"
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Don't stow files beginning with this Perl regex if the file is already
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stowed to another package.
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.IP \-\-override=REGEX 4
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.IX Item "--override=REGEX"
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Force stowing files beginning with this Perl regex if the file is
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already stowed to another package.
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.IP \-\-dotfiles 4
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.IX Item "--dotfiles"
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Enable special handling for "dotfiles" (files or folders whose name
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begins with a period) in the package directory. If this option is
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enabled, Stow will add a preprocessing step for each file or folder
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whose name begins with "dot\-", and replace the "dot\-" prefix in the
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name by a period (.). This is useful when Stow is used to manage
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collections of dotfiles, to avoid having a package directory full of
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hidden files.
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.Sp
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For example, suppose we have a package containing two files,
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\&\fIstow/dot\-bashrc\fR and \fIstow/dot\-emacs.d/init.el\fR. With this option,
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Stow will create symlinks from \fI.bashrc\fR to \fIstow/dot\-bashrc\fR and
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from \fI.emacs.d/init.el\fR to \fIstow/dot\-emacs.d/init.el\fR. Any other
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files, whose name does not begin with "dot\-", will be processed as usual.
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.IP \-V 4
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.IX Item "-V"
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.PD 0
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.IP \-\-version 4
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.IX Item "--version"
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.PD
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Show Stow version number, and exit.
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.IP \-h 4
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.IX Item "-h"
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.PD 0
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.IP \-\-help 4
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.IX Item "--help"
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.PD
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Show Stow command syntax, and exit.
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.SH "INSTALLING PACKAGES"
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.IX Header "INSTALLING PACKAGES"
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The default action of Stow is to install a package. This means
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creating symlinks in the target tree that point into the package tree.
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Stow attempts to do this with as few symlinks as possible; in other
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words, if Stow can create a single symlink that points to an entire
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subtree within the package tree, it will choose to do that rather than
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create a directory in the target tree and populate it with symlinks.
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.PP
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For example, suppose that no packages have yet been installed in
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\&\fI/usr/local\fR; it's completely empty (except for the \fIstow\fR
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subdirectory, of course). Now suppose the Perl package is installed.
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Recall that it includes the following directories in its installation
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image: \fIbin\fR; \fIinfo\fR; \fIlib/perl\fR; \fIman/man1\fR. Rather than
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creating the directory \fI/usr/local/bin\fR and populating it with
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symlinks to \fI../stow/perl/bin/perl\fR and \fI../stow/perl/bin/a2p\fR (and
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so on), Stow will create a single symlink, \fI/usr/local/bin\fR, which
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points to \fIstow/perl/bin\fR. In this way, it still works to refer to
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\&\fI/usr/local/bin/perl\fR and \fI/usr/local/bin/a2p\fR, and fewer symlinks
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have been created. This is called "tree folding", since an entire
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subtree is "folded" into a single symlink.
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.PP
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To complete this example, Stow will also create the symlink
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\&\fI/usr/local/info\fR pointing to \fIstow/perl/info\fR; the symlink
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\&\fI/usr/local/lib\fR pointing to \fIstow/perl/lib\fR; and the symlink
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\&\fI/usr/local/man\fR pointing to \fIstow/perl/man\fR.
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.PP
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Now suppose that instead of installing the Perl package into an empty
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target tree, the target tree is not empty to begin with. Instead, it
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contains several files and directories installed under a different
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system-administration philosophy. In particular, \fI/usr/local/bin\fR
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already exists and is a directory, as are \fI/usr/local/lib\fR and
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\&\fI/usr/local/man/man1\fR. In this case, Stow will descend into
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\&\fI/usr/local/bin\fR and create symlinks to \fI../stow/perl/bin/perl\fR and
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\&\fI../stow/perl/bin/a2p\fR (etc.), and it will descend into
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\&\fI/usr/local/lib\fR and create the tree-folding symlink \fIperl\fR pointing
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to \fI../stow/perl/lib/perl\fR, and so on. As a rule, Stow only descends
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as far as necessary into the target tree when it can create a
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tree-folding symlink.
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.PP
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The time often comes when a tree-folding symlink has to be undone
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because another package uses one or more of the folded subdirectories
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in its installation image. This operation is called "splitting open"
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a folded tree. It involves removing the original symlink from the
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target tree, creating a true directory in its place, and then
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populating the new directory with symlinks to the newly-installed
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package \fBand\fR to the old package that used the old symlink. For
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example, suppose that after installing Perl into an empty
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\&\fI/usr/local\fR, we wish to install Emacs. Emacs's installation image
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includes a \fIbin\fR directory containing the \fIemacs\fR and \fIetags\fR
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executables, among others. Stow must make these files appear to be
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installed in \fI/usr/local/bin\fR, but presently \fI/usr/local/bin\fR is a
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symlink to \fIstow/perl/bin\fR. Stow therefore takes the following
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steps: the symlink \fI/usr/local/bin\fR is deleted; the directory
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\&\fI/usr/local/bin\fR is created; links are made from \fI/usr/local/bin\fR to
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\&\fI../stow/emacs/bin/emacs\fR and \fI../stow/emacs/bin/etags\fR; and links
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are made from \fI/usr/local/bin\fR to \fI../stow/perl/bin/perl\fR and
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\&\fI../stow/perl/bin/a2p\fR.
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.PP
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When splitting open a folded tree, Stow makes sure that the symlink
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it is about to remove points inside a valid package in the current stow
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directory.
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.SS "Stow will never delete anything that it doesn't own."
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.IX Subsection "Stow will never delete anything that it doesn't own."
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Stow "owns" everything living in the target tree that points into a
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package in the stow directory. Anything Stow owns, it can recompute if
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lost. Note that by this definition, Stow doesn't "own" anything
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\&\fBin\fR the stow directory or in any of the packages.
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.PP
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If Stow needs to create a directory or a symlink in the target tree
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and it cannot because that name is already in use and is not owned by
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Stow, then a conflict has arisen. See the "Conflicts" section in the
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info manual.
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.SH "DELETING PACKAGES"
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.IX Header "DELETING PACKAGES"
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When the \f(CW\*(C`\-D\*(C'\fR option is given, the action of Stow is to delete a
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package from the target tree. Note that Stow will not delete anything
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it doesn't "own". Deleting a package does \fBnot\fR mean removing it from
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the stow directory or discarding the package tree.
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.PP
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To delete a package, Stow recursively scans the target tree, skipping
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over the stow directory (since that is usually a subdirectory of the
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target tree) and any other stow directories it encounters (see
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"Multiple stow directories" in the info manual). Any symlink it
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finds that points into the package being deleted is removed. Any
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directory that contained only symlinks to the package being deleted is
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removed. Any directory that, after removing symlinks and empty
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subdirectories, contains only symlinks to a single other package, is
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considered to be a previously "folded" tree that was "split open."
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Stow will re-fold the tree by removing the symlinks to the surviving
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package, removing the directory, then linking the directory back to
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the surviving package.
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.SH "RESOURCE FILES"
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.IX Header "RESOURCE FILES"
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\&\fIStow\fR searches for default command line options at \fI.stowrc\fR (current
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directory) and \fI~/.stowrc\fR (home directory) in that order. If both
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locations are present, the files are effectively appended together.
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.PP
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The effect of options in the resource file is similar to simply prepending
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the options to the command line. For options that provide a single value,
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such as \fI\-\-target\fR or \fI\-\-dir\fR, the command line option will overwrite any
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options in the resource file. For options that can be given more than once,
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\&\fI\-\-ignore\fR for example, command line options and resource options are
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appended together.
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.PP
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Environment variables and the tilde character (\fI~\fR) will be expanded for
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options that take a file path.
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.PP
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The options \fI\-D\fR, \fI\-R\fR, \fI\-S\fR, and any packages listed in the resource
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file are ignored.
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.PP
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See the info manual for more information on how stow handles resource
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file.
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.SH "SEE ALSO"
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.IX Header "SEE ALSO"
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The full documentation for \fIstow\fR is maintained as a Texinfo manual.
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If the \fIinfo\fR and \fIstow\fR programs are properly installed at your site, the command
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.PP
|
|
.Vb 1
|
|
\& info stow
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|
.Ve
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|
.PP
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|
should give you access to the complete manual.
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|
.SH BUGS
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|
.IX Header "BUGS"
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|
Please report bugs in Stow using the Debian bug tracking system.
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|
.PP
|
|
Currently known bugs include:
|
|
.IP \(bu 4
|
|
The empty-directory problem.
|
|
.Sp
|
|
If package \fIfoo\fR includes an empty directory \-\- say, \fIfoo/bar\fR \-\-
|
|
then if no other package has a \fIbar\fR subdirectory, everything's fine.
|
|
If another stowed package \fIquux\fR, has a \fIbar\fR subdirectory, then
|
|
when stowing, \fItargetdir/bar\fR will be "split open" and the contents
|
|
of \fIquux/bar\fR will be individually stowed. So far, so good. But when
|
|
unstowing \fIquux\fR, \fItargetdir/bar\fR will be removed, even though
|
|
\&\fIfoo/bar\fR needs it to remain. A workaround for this problem is to
|
|
create a file in \fIfoo/bar\fR as a placeholder. If you name that file
|
|
\&\fI.placeholder\fR, it will be easy to find and remove such files when
|
|
this bug is fixed.
|
|
.IP \(bu 4
|
|
When using multiple stow directories (see "Multiple stow directories"
|
|
in the info manual), Stow fails to "split open" tree-folding symlinks
|
|
(see "Installing packages" in the info manual) that point into a stow
|
|
directory which is not the one in use by the current Stow
|
|
command. Before failing, it should search the target of the link to
|
|
see whether any element of the path contains a \fI.stow\fR file. If it
|
|
finds one, it can "learn" about the cooperating stow directory to
|
|
short-circuit the \fI.stow\fR search the next time it encounters a
|
|
tree-folding symlink.
|
|
.SH AUTHOR
|
|
.IX Header "AUTHOR"
|
|
This man page was originally constructed by Charles Briscoe-Smith from
|
|
parts of Stow's info manual, and then converted to POD format by Adam
|
|
Spiers. The info manual contains the following notice, which, as it
|
|
says, applies to this manual page, too. The text of the section
|
|
entitled "GNU General Public License" can be found in the file
|
|
\&\fI/usr/share/common\-licenses/GPL\fR on any Debian GNU/Linux system. If
|
|
you don't have access to a Debian system, or the GPL is not there,
|
|
write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite
|
|
330, Boston, MA, 02111\-1307, USA.
|
|
.SH COPYRIGHT
|
|
.IX Header "COPYRIGHT"
|
|
Copyright (C)
|
|
1993, 1994, 1995, 1996 by Bob Glickstein <bobg+stow@zanshin.com>;
|
|
2000, 2001 by Guillaume Morin;
|
|
2007 by Kahlil Hodgson;
|
|
2011 by Adam Spiers;
|
|
and others.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
|
|
manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
|
|
preserved on all copies.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
|
|
manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that
|
|
the section entitled "GNU General Public License" is included with the
|
|
modified manual, and provided that the entire resulting derived work
|
|
is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to
|
|
this one.
|
|
.PP
|
|
Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
|
|
manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified
|
|
versions, except that this permission notice may be stated in a
|
|
translation approved by the Free Software Foundation.
|