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XSTOW(1)		      XStow Reference Guide			XSTOW(1)

NAME
     XStow, replacement for GNU Stow

SYNOPSIS
     xstow	  [OPTION ...] PACKAGE

DESCRIPTION
     XStow  is	a replacement of GNU Stow (stow) written in C++. It supports all
     features of Stow with some extensions.

     XStow as GNU Stow, are programs for managing the installation  of	software
     packages,	 keeping   them  separate  (/usr/local/stow/emacs  vs.	/usr/lo-
     cal/stow/perl, for example) while making them appear to be installed in the
     same place (/usr/local).

USAGE
     xstow [OPTION ...] PACKAGE

     Install a package

	     xstow foobar

     Uninstall package

	     xstow -D foobar

OPTIONS
     -dl -debug-level INT
	 Set's the debug level. An unsigned integer  is  accepted.  The  default
	 value is 0.

     -dm -debug-module [ALL|ARG|MAIN|TREE|CPPDIR]
	 Filter messages from a specific module.

     -h -help
	 Shows a help screen.

     -V -Version
	 Displays XStows version number and supported features.

     -n -no
	 Do not actually make changes

     -c -conflicts
	 Scan for conflicts, implies -n.

     -s -simulate
	 Simulate  installation.  If this option is set permission problems will
	 be ignored and -verbose will be set to 1.

     -d -dir DIR
	 Set stow dir to DIR. The default is the current directory.

     -d -target DIR
	 Set target to DIR. The default is the parent of the stow directory.

     -v -verbose [0|1|2|3]
	 Increase verboseness. Possible levels are 0,1,2 or 3. Simple setting -v
	 or -verbose adds 1.

     -D -delete
	 Unstow instead of stow. Deinstall the package.

     -R -restow
	 The same like -delete followed by an reinstall.

     -ap -absolute-path
	 Create symlinks with absolute path names. XStow can always handle pack-
	 ages which were installed with this option. Installing one package with
	 absolute path names and one without is no problem. Only the creation of
	 the symlinks will be affected by this option. This will cause	that  if
	 one  package is installed with this option and one without, some of the
	 symlinks of the first package, when they have to be recreated	will  be
	 recreated  as relative ones. It is not good idea doing this, even XStow
	 does not have any problems with it.  Warning: Breaks compatibility with
	 Stow!

     -tr -traversable LINKS
	 A list of links pointing to directories, that	can  be  ignored.   eg.:
	 /usr/local/man  is  a link to /usr/local/share/man Warning: Breaks com-
	 patibility with Stow!

     -tkt -tr-keep-targets
	 Add the list of traversable links also to the keep targets  list.  This
	 prevents  the	targets  of the links from being removed by XStow, which
	 would cause that the traversable link becomes a dead link.

     -tre -tr-auto PATTERN
	 Automatically add links which target matches this pattern.

     -tre -tr-auto-regex REGEX
	 Automatically add links which target matches this pattern.

     -kd -keep-dirs DIR
	 A list of directories, that should not be removed when a  package  will
	 be removed. Warning: Breaks compatibility with Stow!

     -i -ignore PATTERN
	 Ignore files that matches this pattern.

     -ire -ignore-regex REGEX
	 Ignore files that matches this expression.

     -ni -nignore PATTERN
	 Ignore everything except file and directories matching this expression.
	 eg:  "systree/bintree	systree/headertree".   For using nignore support
	 fnmatch and configration file support has to be enabled. For  more  de-
	 tails see xstow.ini(5).

     -cp -copy PATTERN
	 Copy files or directories that matching this pattern.

     -cre -copy-regex REGEX
	 Copy files or directories that matching this expression.

     -ifd -i-file-in-dir DIR/FILE
	 Ignore this file in this directory. (Relative to the package dir.)

     -cfd -c-file-in-dir DIR/FILE
	 Copy this file in this directory. (Relative to the package dir.)

     -sd -stow-dirs DIR
	 A list of other stow dirs, that xstow is allowed change

     -sda -sd-auto PATTERN
	 Automatically	add  directories  to the list when matching this expres-
	 sion.

     -sde -sd-auto-regex REGEX
	 Automatically add directories to the list when  matching  this  expres-
	 sion.

     -pd -protect-dirs DIR
	 A list of other dirs, that xstow is not allowed change

     -pda -pd-auto PATTERN
	 Automatically	add  directories  to the list when matching this expres-
	 sion.

     -pde -pd-auto-regex REGEX
	 Automatically add directories to the list when  matching  this  expres-
	 sion.

     -pdt -pd-targets DIRS
	 A list of dirs, xstow is allowed to change.

     -pta -pdt-add-traversable DIRS
	 Automatically add the targets of traversable links to the targets list.

     -f -force
	 Skip conflicts if possible.

     -C -no-curses
	 Do  not  detect  the terminal width by using curses.  There is more de-
	 scription at the environment variable section.

     -F file
	 Read this configuration file too.

RETURN VALUES
     0	 On success.

     1	 On a missspelled call of xstow.

     2	 If an internal error occoured.

     3	 Installing the package failed of some reason. All the	prechecking  was
	 ok, but the execution of the exec list failed.

     4	 Installing a package failed.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
     Since  the  debugging of the command line parsing can be hard if the debug-
     ging level is set by the command line there are two evironment variables:

     XSTOW_DEBUG_LEVEL
	 Same as the -debug-level option.

     XSTOW_DEBUG_MODULE
	 Same as the -debug-module option.

	 Both values will be overwritten by the settings of  the  command  line,
	 after the command line was parsed.

     XSTOW_USE_CURSES
	 Same as the -no-curses option.

	 In  later versions xstow tried detecting the terminal width and height,
	 by default at the startup routine. Even if this value is only	used  by
	 the help screen. The result was:

	     $ TERM="" xstow
	     Error opening terminal: unknown.

	 The  error message is reported by the ncurses lib. This can cause prob-
	 lems if you wan't start xstow as a cron job.  Now xstow tries detecting
	 the terminal width not in it's startup, but when  the	help  screen  is
	 printed  out.	As  an extra option you can set the environment variable
	 XSTOW_USE_CURSES="0" this will tell xstow not using curses anyway.

COFIGURATION FILES
     The configuration file xstow.ini can be located in /etc and/or in the  cur-
     rent  stow directory. For possible settings and syntax of this file see xs-
     tow.ini(5)

     In this manpage there are some detailed informations of some  special  set-
     tings of XStow too. Please read it!

EXAMPLES
   Common Usage
     As an example we install the ixlib library into the /usr/local/ tree.

	     tar xvfz ixlib-0.96.2.tar.gz
	     cd ixlib-0.96.2
	     ./configure
	     make

     So far, this was business as usual.

     Note:  by	default  the configure script prepares the application for being
     installed into /usr/local/. Have a look at configure --help for more info.

     Now installation is done by not installing ixlib directly into /usr/local/,
     we install it into /usr/local/stow/ixlib-0.96.2/.

	     make install prefix=/usr/local/stow/ixlib-0.96.2/

     The last point is creating all necessare symlinks so that	ixlib's  include
     files  can be found by the compiler in /usr/local/include. Therefore we are
     using xstow.

	     cd /usr/local/stow
	     xstow ixlib-0.96.2

     And all symlinks will be created.

   Installing XStow by using XStow
     After calling the configure script and make, XStow is  installed  into  the
     stow directory as I showed it in the upper example.

	     make install prefix=/usr/local/stow/xstow-0.1.0

     Then you switch to the stow directory and call XStow

	     cd /usr/local/stow
	     xstow-0.1.0/bin/xstow xstow-0.1.0

     That is it.

COMPATIBLE
   Link Creation
     By  default  XStow  is  fully Stow compatible. The usage of some of the ad-
     vanced features can cause that Stow cannot handle the tree any more.

   Command Line Options
     XStow supports all command line options of Stow. Even it's format.

     Eg.:      xstow --verbose=2 foobar

BUGS
     There are some nitty gritty cases, but no known bugs.

WHY
     Stow requires Perl. But what's on systems where no Perl  is  available,  or
     not yet installed? I tried compiling Stow with perlcc, but it failed.

AUTHORS
     XStow was written by Martin Oberzalek <kingleo@gmx.at>.

COPYING
     XStow a replacement of GNU Stow written in C++.

     Copyright (C) 2002-2021 by Martin Oberzalek <kingleo@gmx.at>

     This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it un-
     der  the  terms  of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
     Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at  your  option)
     any later version.

     This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
     ANY  WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FIT-
     NESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more
     details.

     You should have received a copy of the GNU  General  Public  License  along
     with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675
     Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

SEE ALSO
     xstow.ini(5) merge-info(1) stow(1)

     GNU  Stow	has  an  excelent  documentation.  Have  a  look  at the manual.
     http://www.gnu.org/software/stow/

XStow 1.1.0			   2022-07-25				XSTOW(1)
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