The only real edge case is when for some reason the package you want to use
is extremely outdated or borked. e.g: I use FreeSwitch on CentOS, but the
package manager's plugins don't work correctly unless I build from source
and teak some parameters for my liking.

Is there a specific subfolder I should be installing compiled programs to?
> IE /opt instead of /usr/bin ?


No, usually somewhere that's easy for you to remember where it is when your
done is fine. Heck /tmp folder is fine, if it's small enough.

Is there a way to specify the subfolder?

If you mean by downloading it, most cases only where you put the source
code. Unless you mean the installation part, most of the time no, unless
the devs added a method inside their 'make install' for you to do this. But
even then if you are hell bent on where your program lives, you can use
symlinks.

Is there an easy way to uninstall said programs when I am ready to do so?


Sometimes the downloaded makefiles will have a "uninstall" command. If not,
it's best to consult the source of the program's website or, author or
community.

What is the best way to keep said programs up to date when a new version is
> available?
>

Depends on the circumstance, if building from source. Lot of the times you
can safely clone/download the code again and rebuild it and install it, but
sometimes you may need to unistall and re-install the program. Hence why
most people like to depend on package managers.

Would it be better to take a program I want and make a .deb so that I can
> use dpkg or apt?


IMHO, seems like you would be giving yourself more overhead if you are
using it for one machine and one machine only. But if you have a cluster
running on the same OS, making a .deb wouldn't be a bad idea, since it
would save you time in the long run.

Someone may have a better answer to these, but this is just from my
experience.

Andrew McRobb
Full-time Software Developer
Part-time Freelancer
mcrobb.info

On Wed, Jan 24, 2018 at 4:17 PM, Matthew Crews <mailinglists@mattcrews.com>
wrote:

> Hey all, this is a relatively newbish question.
>
> I'm comfortable with downloading and installing the source code to a
> program that I want to use, compile it, and use "make install" to install.
> That is the easy part.
>
> Here's the hard part for me. What are the best practices for doing so?
> -Is there a specific subfolder I should be installing compiled programs
> to? IE /opt instead of /usr/bin ?
> -Is there a way to specify the subfolder?
> -Is there an easy way to uninstall said programs when I am ready to do so?
> -What is the best way to keep said programs up to date when a new version
> is available?
>
> For the record, I am using Debian Stretch. Would it be better to take a
> program I want and make a .deb so that I can use dpkg or apt?
>
> Cheers.
>
> ​Sent from ProtonMail, Swiss-based encrypted email.
> ​
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