I occasionally face a problem when using programs for which developers don't publish deb packages and only provide source. Sometimes I find a PPA providing the package but sometimes I don't or sometimes I don't trust the third party's version of the package because the program is rather sensitive from the security point of view (e.g. a password manager).
I can install from the source but this is ok to do once, not to do it on regular basis so as to install program's updates. Therefore, I'm thinking...
Is there a tool which would automate installation from the sources?
- Check for updated source. (e.g. in a Git repo)
- Download the code.
- Compile it in the background.
- Offer installation the similar way the Ubuntu's update manager would?
I guess I could probably put the process together using Jenkins and some custom coding but it's possibly quite a bit of work and I don't want to re-invent the wheel.
PS: Answers like the one for Atom editor lack some expected features when having to deal with the installation of multiple programs this way:
- management of the configuration for each of them
- download from different sources (tar archive, Git repo, etc.)
- checking the source on daily basis and tracking whether there is a need to proceed with the update
- resolving dependencies
- check that the compilation succeeded
- offer to install the package instead of installing it automatically
In other words, I'm looking for something that would put user-friendliness into the process.
