I think this one is in the right category.
Just wondering what people generally do when building software, particularly on Linux. Do people just build the software they need to build on the machine that it will be used on (meaning building different software on different machines) or do people build on a single machine with all the dev tools they need on it and then somehow package it up and then install it on the required machine?
For some context, a Pi runs an experimental web server. I've been building (repository version too old) the webserver directly on that machine. Now, on another Pi that runs a docker instance I want to migrate it to Podman. Again due to the repository version of a package being too old I'll need to build it. Would people normally directly build on the Docker/Podman machine as well even though all the dev tools are already present on the other Pi?
Back in my Windows days this wouldn't have been a question but here on Linux it seems, given the difficulty I had in finding any practical information on how to do it, that packaging is a black art or trade secret; or my search terms suck.
Just wondering what people generally do when building software, particularly on Linux. Do people just build the software they need to build on the machine that it will be used on (meaning building different software on different machines) or do people build on a single machine with all the dev tools they need on it and then somehow package it up and then install it on the required machine?
For some context, a Pi runs an experimental web server. I've been building (repository version too old) the webserver directly on that machine. Now, on another Pi that runs a docker instance I want to migrate it to Podman. Again due to the repository version of a package being too old I'll need to build it. Would people normally directly build on the Docker/Podman machine as well even though all the dev tools are already present on the other Pi?
Back in my Windows days this wouldn't have been a question but here on Linux it seems, given the difficulty I had in finding any practical information on how to do it, that packaging is a black art or trade secret; or my search terms suck.
Statistics: Posted by jarpf — Thu Jan 01, 2026 6:37 am — Replies 0 — Views 44