Installing additional packages after a minimal Fedora Core Installation

Since my ‘Core’ installation document was getting pretty big, I decided to create a second document listing additional applications that may be needed for your particular use. The intent here is to show how to install just what is needed for any one application. So, by using the minimal install of Fedora plus any specific package installations contained in this document – you should have a pretty lean and mean system. Each set of instructions are listed under a category, making it easier to find and figure out what you need.

General

Compile Support

Many applications do not come ‘packaged’ to where they can be installed via yum or RPM. The application author will provide the source code and give instructions on how to compile on your machine. If you install the development tools during the initial Linux installation, it will add several hundred Mb’s of data – most of it not needed for basic compiles. Here is all you need for the most commonly used C and C++ compiler used in *UNIX.

At a shell prompt, we will install gcc via yum by using the following command:

yum -y install gcc

and

yum -y install gcc-c++

CPAN support

CPAN is a very nice platform built on Perl that allows you to automatically download, compile, and install various perl modules that you may want to use with your system. Think of CPAN as yum for Perl – very nice!!!!. The first time you invoke the CPAN shell, it will ask you to configure it – which can be messy if you try and go through all the options and set each one. I’ll point out the important ones to cut down on the headaches. First invoke the shell:

perl -MCPAN -e "shell"

The first thing you will see is a prompt asking if your ready for manual configuration. Regardless of your thoughts here, answer yes and hit Enter
The first question will ask if it can create a working directory, which is used to hold temporary and working files – along with any files it may cache. By default it will want to create a .cpan directory under your home directory (probably /root/.cpan). To be tidy, you can specify your tmp directory structure by answering the question with:

/tmp/.cpan

and press Enter.
- Next question: Cache size and build directory – leave the default, so just hit Enter
- Next question: Perform cache scanning – leave the default (atstart), so just hit Enter
- Next question: Cache metadata – leave the default (yes), so just hit Enter
- Next question: Your terminal expects ISO-8859-1 – leave the default(yes), so just hit Enter
- Next question: File to save your history – leave the default, so just hit Enter
- Next question: Number of lines to save – leave the default [100], so just hit Enter
- Next question: Policy on building prerequisites – I prefer to just let it do it without asking, so type follow and press Enter
- Next question: Where is your gzip program – leave the default, so just hit Enter
- Next question: Where is your tar program – leave the default, so just hit Enter
- Next question: Where is your unzip program – leave the default, so just hit Enter
- Next question: Where is your make program – leave the default, so just hit Enter
- Next question: Where is your links program – leave the default, so just hit Enter (you may not have this installed)
- Next question: Where is your wget program – leave the default, so just hit Enter
- Next question: Where is your ncftpget program – leave the default, so just hit Enter (you may not have this installed)
- Next question: Where is your ncftp program – leave the default, so just hit Enter (you may not have this installed)
- Next question: Where is your ftp program – leave the default, so just hit Enter
- Next question: Where is your gpg program – leave the default, so just hit Enter
- Next question: What is your favorite pager program? – leave the default, so just hit Enter
- Next question: What is your favorite shell? – leave the default, so just hit Enter
- Next question: Big paragraph asking for additional parameters to pass – leave default (leave blank), so just hit Enter
- Next question: Parameters for the ‘make’ command – leave the default, so just hit Enter
- Next question: Parameters for the ‘make install’ command – leave the default, so just hit Enter
- Next question: Timeout for inactivity during Makefile.PL – leave the default, so just hit Enter
- Next question: Your ftp_proxy – If you use a proxy server to get to the Internet, enter it here and then press Enter
- Next question: Your http_proxy – If you use a proxy server to get to the Internet, enter it here and then press Enter
- Next question: Your no_proxy – If you use a proxy server to get to the Internet, enter it here and then press Enter
- Next question: Select your continent – Enter the appropriate number and press Enter
- Next question: Select your country – Enter the appropriate number and press Enter
- Next question: Select URLs (to download from) – Enter 1 2 , and press Enter
- Next question: Enter additional URL – press Enter

 

Now, let’s give CPAN an update for itself. At the cpan> enter:

install Bundle::CPAN

After the install, you will returned to the CPAN prompt. If you want to look at all the modules available to install on your system type m and press Enter. Be sure to have your scrollback buffer set pretty high

If you see something you want to install – use install blah::blah at the cpan> prompt.