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© 2000, 2001 Guillaume Morin gmorin@gnu.org


© 2007 Kahlil (Kal) Hodgson kahlil@internode.on.net


© 2011 Adam Spiers stow@adamspiers.org

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<div class="top-level-extent" id="Top">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#Introduction" accesskey="n" rel="next">Introduction</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<a class="top" id="SEC_Top"></a>
<p>This manual describes GNU Stow 2.4.1 (8 September 2024), a
symlink farm manager which takes distinct sets of software and/or data
located in separate directories on the filesystem, and makes them
appear to be installed in a single directory tree.
</p>

<div class="element-contents" id="SEC_Contents">
<h2 class="contents-heading">Table of Contents</h2>

<div class="contents">

<ul class="toc-numbered-mark">
  <li><a id="toc-Introduction-1" href="#Introduction">1 Introduction</a></li>
  <li><a id="toc-Terminology-1" href="#Terminology">2 Terminology</a></li>
  <li><a id="toc-Invoking-Stow-1" href="#Invoking-Stow">3 Invoking Stow</a></li>
  <li><a id="toc-Ignore-Lists-1" href="#Ignore-Lists">4 Ignore Lists</a>
  <ul class="toc-numbered-mark">
    <li><a id="toc-Motivation-For-Ignore-Lists-1" href="#Motivation-For-Ignore-Lists">4.1 Motivation For Ignore Lists</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Types-And-Syntax-Of-Ignore-Lists-1" href="#Types-And-Syntax-Of-Ignore-Lists">4.2 Types And Syntax Of Ignore Lists</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Justification-For-Yet-Another-Set-Of-Ignore-Files-1" href="#Justification-For-Yet-Another-Set-Of-Ignore-Files">4.3 Justification For Yet Another Set Of Ignore Files</a></li>
  </ul></li>
  <li><a id="toc-Installing-Packages-1" href="#Installing-Packages">5 Installing Packages</a>
  <ul class="toc-numbered-mark">
    <li><a id="toc-Tree-folding" href="#Tree-folding">5.1 Tree folding</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Tree-unfolding-1" href="#Tree-unfolding-1">5.2 Tree unfolding</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Ownership" href="#Ownership">5.3 Ownership</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Conflicts-during-installation" href="#Conflicts-during-installation">5.4 Conflicts during installation</a></li>
  </ul></li>
  <li><a id="toc-Deleting-Packages-1" href="#Deleting-Packages">6 Deleting Packages</a>
  <ul class="toc-numbered-mark">
    <li><a id="toc-Refolding-_0060_0060foldable_0027_0027-trees_002e" href="#Refolding-_0060_0060foldable_0027_0027-trees_002e">6.1 Refolding &ldquo;foldable&rdquo; trees.</a></li>
  </ul></li>
  <li><a id="toc-Conflicts-1" href="#Conflicts">7 Conflicts</a>
  <ul class="toc-numbered-mark">
    <li><a id="toc-Deferred-Operation-1" href="#Deferred-Operation-1">7.1 Deferred Operation</a></li>
  </ul></li>
  <li><a id="toc-Mixing-Operations-1" href="#Mixing-Operations">8 Mixing Operations</a></li>
  <li><a id="toc-Multiple-Stow-Directories-1" href="#Multiple-Stow-Directories">9 Multiple Stow Directories</a></li>
  <li><a id="toc-Target-Maintenance-1" href="#Target-Maintenance">10 Target Maintenance</a></li>
  <li><a id="toc-Resource-Files-1" href="#Resource-Files">11 Resource Files</a></li>
  <li><a id="toc-Compile_002dtime-vs_002e-Install_002dtime-1" href="#Compile_002dtime-vs_002e-Install_002dtime">12 Compile-time vs. Install-time</a>
  <ul class="toc-numbered-mark">
    <li><a id="toc-Advice-on-changing-compilation-and-installation-parameters" href="#Advice-on-changing-compilation-and-installation-parameters">12.1 Advice on changing compilation and installation parameters</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-GNU-Emacs-1" href="#GNU-Emacs">12.2 GNU Emacs</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Other-FSF-Software-1" href="#Other-FSF-Software">12.3 Other FSF Software</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Cygnus-Software-1" href="#Cygnus-Software">12.4 Cygnus Software</a></li>
    <li><a id="toc-Perl-and-Perl-5-Modules-1" href="#Perl-and-Perl-5-Modules">12.5 Perl and Perl 5 Modules</a></li>
  </ul></li>
  <li><a id="toc-Bootstrapping-1" href="#Bootstrapping">13 Bootstrapping</a></li>
  <li><a id="toc-Reporting-Bugs-1" href="#Reporting-Bugs">14 Reporting Bugs</a></li>
  <li><a id="toc-Known-Bugs-1" href="#Known-Bugs">15 Known Bugs</a></li>
  <li><a id="toc-GNU-General-Public-License-1" href="#GNU-General-Public-License">GNU General Public License</a></li>
  <li><a id="toc-Index-1" href="#Index" rel="index">Index</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="chapter-level-extent" id="Introduction">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#Terminology" accesskey="n" rel="next">Terminology</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h2 class="chapter" id="Introduction-1">1 Introduction</h2>

<p>GNU Stow is a symlink farm manager which takes distinct sets of
software and/or data located in separate directories on the
filesystem, and makes them all appear to be installed in a single
directory tree.
</p>
<p>Originally Stow was born to address the need to administer, upgrade,
install, and remove files in independent software packages without
confusing them with other files sharing the same file system space.
For instance, many years ago it used to be common to compile programs
such as Perl and Emacs from source and install them in
<samp class="file">/usr/local</samp>.  When one does so, one winds up with the following
files<a class="footnote" id="DOCF1" href="#FOOT1"><sup>1</sup></a> in
<samp class="file">/usr/local/man/man1</samp>:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">a2p.1
ctags.1
emacs.1
etags.1
h2ph.1
perl.1
s2p.1
</pre></div>

<p>Now suppose it&rsquo;s time to uninstall Perl.  Which man pages
get removed?  Obviously <samp class="file">perl.1</samp> is one of them, but it should not
be the administrator&rsquo;s responsibility to memorize the ownership of
individual files by separate packages.
</p>
<p>The approach used by Stow is to install each package into its own
tree, then use symbolic links to make it appear as though the files are
installed in the common tree.  Administration can be performed in the
package&rsquo;s private tree in isolation from clutter from other packages.
Stow can then be used to update the symbolic links.  The structure
of each private tree should reflect the desired structure in the common
tree; i.e. (in the typical case) there should be a <samp class="file">bin</samp> directory
containing executables, a <samp class="file">man/man1</samp> directory containing section 1
man pages, and so on.
</p>
<p>While this is useful for keeping track of system-wide and per-user
installations of software built from source, in more recent times
software packages are often managed by more sophisticated package
management software such as
<a class="uref" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rpm_(software)"><code class="command">rpm</code></a>,
<a class="uref" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dpkg"><code class="command">dpkg</code></a>, and
<a class="uref" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nix_package_manager">Nix</a> /
<a class="uref" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Guix">GNU Guix</a>, or
language-native package managers such as
<a class="uref" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RubyGems">Ruby&rsquo;s <code class="command">gem</code></a>,
<a class="uref" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pip_(package_manager)">Python&rsquo;s
<code class="command">pip</code></a>, <a class="uref" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Npm_(software)">Javascript&rsquo;s <code class="command">npm</code></a>, and so on.
</p>
<p>However Stow is still used not only for software package management,
but also for other purposes, such as facilitating a more controlled
approach to management of configuration files in the user&rsquo;s home
directory<a class="footnote" id="DOCF2" href="#FOOT2"><sup>2</sup></a>,
especially when coupled with version control
systems<a class="footnote" id="DOCF3" href="#FOOT3"><sup>3</sup></a>.
</p>
<p>Stow was inspired by Carnegie Mellon&rsquo;s Depot program, but is
substantially simpler and safer.  Whereas Depot required database
files to keep things in sync, Stow stores no extra state between runs,
so there&rsquo;s no danger (as there was in Depot) of mangling directories
when file hierarchies don&rsquo;t match the database.  Also unlike Depot,
Stow will never delete any files, directories, or links that appear in
a Stow directory (e.g., <samp class="file">/usr/local/stow/emacs</samp>), so it&rsquo;s always
possible to rebuild the target tree (e.g., <samp class="file">/usr/local</samp>).
</p>
<p>Stow is implemented as a combination of a Perl script providing a CLI
interface, and a backend Perl module which does most of the work.
</p>
<p>For information about the latest version of Stow, you can refer to
<a class="uref" href="http://www.gnu.org/software/stow/">http://www.gnu.org/software/stow/</a>.
</p>

<hr>
</div>
<div class="chapter-level-extent" id="Terminology">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#Invoking-Stow" accesskey="n" rel="next">Invoking Stow</a>, Previous: <a href="#Introduction" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Introduction</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h2 class="chapter" id="Terminology-1">2 Terminology</h2>

<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-package"></a>
<p>A <em class="dfn">package</em> is a related collection of files and directories that
you wish to administer as a unit &mdash; e.g., Perl or Emacs &mdash; and that needs
to be installed in a particular directory structure &mdash; e.g., with
<samp class="file">bin</samp>, <samp class="file">lib</samp>, and <samp class="file">man</samp> subdirectories.
</p>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-target-directory"></a>
<p>A <em class="dfn">target directory</em> is the root of a tree in which one or more
packages wish to <em class="emph">appear</em> to be installed.  <samp class="file">/usr/local</samp> is a
common choice for this, but by no means the only such location.  Another
common choice is <samp class="file">~</samp> (i.e. the user&rsquo;s <code class="code">$HOME</code> directory) in
the case where Stow is being used to manage the user&rsquo;s configuration
(&ldquo;dotfiles&rdquo;) and other files in their <code class="code">$HOME</code>.  The examples in
this manual will use <samp class="file">/usr/local</samp> as the target directory.
</p>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-stow-directory"></a>
<p>A <em class="dfn">stow directory</em> is the root of a tree containing separate
packages in private subtrees.  When Stow runs, it uses the current
directory as the default stow directory.  The examples in this manual
will use <samp class="file">/usr/local/stow</samp> as the stow directory, so that
individual packages will be, for example, <samp class="file">/usr/local/stow/perl</samp>
and <samp class="file">/usr/local/stow/emacs</samp>.
</p>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-installation-image"></a>
<p>An <em class="dfn">installation image</em> is the layout of files and directories
required by a package, relative to the target directory.  Thus, the
installation image for Perl includes: a <samp class="file">bin</samp> directory containing
<samp class="file">perl</samp> and <samp class="file">a2p</samp> (among others); an <samp class="file">info</samp> directory
containing Texinfo documentation; a <samp class="file">lib/perl</samp> directory containing
Perl libraries; and a <samp class="file">man/man1</samp> directory containing man pages.
</p>
<blockquote class="quotation">
<p><b class="b">Note:</b> This is a <em class="emph">pre-</em>installation image which exists even before Stow
has installed any symlinks into the target directory which point to it.
</p></blockquote>

<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-package-directory"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-package-name"></a>
<p>A <em class="dfn">package directory</em> is the root of a tree containing the
installation image for a particular package.  Each package directory
must reside in a stow directory &mdash; e.g., the package directory
<samp class="file">/usr/local/stow/perl</samp> must reside in the stow directory
<samp class="file">/usr/local/stow</samp>.  The <em class="dfn">name</em> of a package is the name of its
directory within the stow directory &mdash; e.g., <samp class="file">perl</samp>.
</p>
<p>Thus, the Perl executable might reside in
<samp class="file">/usr/local/stow/perl/bin/perl</samp>, where <samp class="file">/usr/local</samp> is the
target directory, <samp class="file">/usr/local/stow</samp> is the stow directory,
<samp class="file">/usr/local/stow/perl</samp> is the package directory, and
<samp class="file">bin/perl</samp> within is part of the installation image.
</p>
<a class="anchor" id="symlink"></a><a class="index-entry-id" id="index-symlink"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-symlink-source"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-symlink-destination"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-relative-symlink"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-absolute-symlink"></a>
<p>A <em class="dfn">symlink</em> is a symbolic link, i.e. an entry on the filesystem
whose path is sometimes called the <em class="dfn">symlink source</em>, which points to
another location on the filesystem called the <em class="dfn">symlink destination</em>.
There is no guarantee that the destination actually exists.
</p>
<p>In general, symlinks can be <em class="dfn">relative</em> or <em class="dfn">absolute</em>.  A symlink
is absolute when the destination names a full path; that is, one
starting from <samp class="file">/</samp>.  A symlink is relative when the destination
names a relative path; that is, one not starting from <samp class="file">/</samp>.  The
destination of a relative symlink is computed starting from the
symlink&rsquo;s own directory, i.e. the directory containing the symlink
source.
</p>
<blockquote class="quotation">
<p><b class="b">Note:</b> Stow only creates symlinks within the target directory which point to
locations <em class="emph">outside</em> the target directory and inside the stow
directory.
</p>
<p>Consequently, we avoid referring to symlink destinations as symlink
<em class="emph">targets</em>, since this would result in the word &ldquo;target&rdquo; having
two different meanings:
</p>
<ol class="enumerate">
<li> the target directory, i.e. the directory into which Stow targets
installation, where symlinks are managed by Stow, and

</li><li> the destinations of those symlinks.

</li></ol>

<p>If we did not avoid the second meaning of &ldquo;target&rdquo;, then it would lead
to confusing language, such as describing Stow as installing symlinks
into the target directory which point to targets <em class="emph">outside</em> the
target directory.
</p>
<p>Similarly, the word &ldquo;source&rdquo; can have two different meanings in this
context:
</p>
<ol class="enumerate">
<li> the installation image, or some of its contents, and

</li><li> the location of symlinks (the &ldquo;source&rdquo; of the link, vs. its
destination).

</li></ol>

<p>Therefore it should also be avoided, or at least care taken to ensure
that the meaning is not ambiguous.
</p>
</blockquote>

<hr>
</div>
<div class="chapter-level-extent" id="Invoking-Stow">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#Ignore-Lists" accesskey="n" rel="next">Ignore Lists</a>, Previous: <a href="#Terminology" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Terminology</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h2 class="chapter" id="Invoking-Stow-1">3 Invoking Stow</h2>

<p>The syntax of the <code class="command">stow</code> command is:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">stow [<var class="var">options</var>] [<var class="var">action flag</var>] <var class="var">package &hellip;</var>
</pre></div>

<p>Each <var class="var">package</var> is the name of a package (e.g., &lsquo;<samp class="samp">perl</samp>&rsquo;) in the stow
directory that we wish to install into (or delete from) the target directory.
The default action is to install the given packages, although alternate actions
may be specified by preceding the package name(s) with an <var class="var">action flag</var>.
</p>
<p>The following options are supported:
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">-d <var class="var">dir</var></samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--dir=<var class="var">dir</var></samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Set the stow directory to <var class="var">dir</var>.  Defaults to the value of the environment
variable <code class="env">STOW_DIR</code> if set, or the current directory otherwise.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">-t <var class="var">dir</var></samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--target=<var class="var">dir</var></samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Set the target directory to <var class="var">dir</var> instead of the parent of the stow
directory.  Defaults to the parent of the stow directory, so it is typical to
execute <code class="command">stow</code> from the directory <samp class="file">/usr/local/stow</samp>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--ignore=<var class="var">regexp</var></samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>This (repeatable) option lets you suppress acting on files that match the
given Perl regular expression.  For example, using the options
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">--ignore='.*\.orig' --ignore='.*\.dist'
</pre></div>

<p>will cause stow to ignore files ending in <samp class="file">.orig</samp> or <samp class="file">.dist</samp>.
</p>
<p>Note that the regular expression is anchored to the end of the filename,
because this is what you will want to do most of the time.
</p>
<p>Also note that by default Stow automatically ignores a &ldquo;sensible&rdquo;
built-in list of files and directories such as <samp class="file">CVS</samp>, editor
backup files, and so on.  See <a class="xref" href="#Ignore-Lists">Ignore Lists</a>, for more details.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--defer=<var class="var">regexp</var></samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>This (repeatable) option avoids stowing a file matching the given
regular expression, if that file is already stowed by another package.
This is effectively the opposite of <samp class="option">--override</samp>.
</p>
<p>(N.B. the name <samp class="option">--defer</samp> was chosen in the sense that the package
currently being stowed is treated with lower precedence than any
already installed package, not in the sense that the operation is
being postponed to be run at a later point in time; do not confuse
this nomenclature with the wording used in <a class="ref" href="#Deferred-Operation">Deferred Operation</a>.)
</p>
<p>For example, the following options
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">--defer=man --defer=info
</pre></div>

<p>will cause stow to skip over pre-existing man and info pages.
</p>
<p>Equivalently, you could use &lsquo;<samp class="samp">--defer='man|info'</samp>&rsquo; since the
argument is just a Perl regular expression.
</p>
<p>Note that the regular expression is anchored to the beginning of the path
relative to the target directory, because this is what you will want to do most
of the time.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--override=<var class="var">regexp</var></samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>This (repeatable) option forces any file matching the regular expression to be
stowed, even if the file is already stowed to another package. For example,
the following options
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">--override=man --override=info
</pre></div>

<p>will permit stow to overwrite links that point to pre-existing man and info
pages that are owned by stow and would otherwise cause a conflict.
</p>
<p>The regular expression is anchored to the beginning of the path relative to
the target directory, because this is what you will want to do most of the time.
</p>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-dotfiles"></a>
</dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--dotfiles</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd>
<p>Enable special handling for <em class="emph">dotfiles</em> (files or folders whose
name begins with a period) in the package directory. If this option is
enabled, Stow will add a preprocessing step for each file or folder
whose name begins with &lsquo;<samp class="samp">dot-</samp>&rsquo;, and replace the &lsquo;<samp class="samp">dot-</samp>&rsquo; prefix
in the name by a period &lsquo;<samp class="samp">.</samp>&rsquo;. This is useful when Stow is used to
manage collections of dotfiles, to avoid having a package directory
full of hidden files.
</p>
<p>For example, suppose we have a package containing two files,
<samp class="file">stow/dot-bashrc</samp> and <samp class="file">stow/dot-emacs.d/init.el</samp>. With this
option, Stow will create symlinks from <samp class="file">.bashrc</samp> to
<samp class="file">stow/dot-bashrc</samp> and from <samp class="file">.emacs.d/init.el</samp> to
<samp class="file">stow/dot-emacs.d/init.el</samp>. Any other files, whose name does not
begin with &lsquo;<samp class="samp">dot-</samp>&rsquo;, will be processed as usual.
</p>
<p>Note that when this option is enabled, any package file or directory
prefixed with &lsquo;<samp class="samp">dot-</samp>&rsquo; is assumed to be named deliberately to be
stowed with a &lsquo;<samp class="samp">.</samp>&rsquo; prefix, and therefore will only be ignored if
there is an entry in the ignore list (See <a class="xref" href="#Ignore-Lists">Ignore Lists</a>) which matches
this prefix.  So for example, by default <samp class="file">dot-gitignore</samp> would not
be ignored even though &lsquo;<samp class="samp">\.gitignore</samp>&rsquo; is in the default ignore list.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--no-folding</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd>
<p>This disables any further tree folding (see <a class="pxref" href="#tree-folding">tree folding</a>) or
refolding (see <a class="pxref" href="#tree-refolding">tree refolding</a>).  If a new subdirectory is
encountered whilst stowing a new package, the subdirectory is created
within the target, and its contents are symlinked, rather than just
creating a symlink for the directory.  If removal of symlinks whilst
unstowing a package causes a subtree to be foldable (i.e. only
containing symlinks to a single package), that subtree will not be
removed and replaced with a symlink.
</p>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-adopting-existing-files"></a>
</dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--adopt</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p><strong class="strong">Warning!</strong> This behaviour is specifically intended to alter the
contents of your stow directory.  If you do not want that, this option
is not for you.
</p>
<p>When stowing, if a target is encountered which already exists but is a
plain file (and hence not owned by any existing stow package), then
normally Stow will register this as a conflict and refuse to proceed.
This option changes that behaviour so that the file is moved to the
same relative place within the package&rsquo;s installation image within the
stow directory, and then stowing proceeds as before.  So effectively,
the file becomes adopted by the stow package, without its contents
changing.
</p>
<p>This is particularly useful when the stow package is under the control
of a version control system, because it allows files in the target
tree, with potentially different contents to the equivalent versions
in the stow package&rsquo;s installation image, to be adopted into the
package, then compared by running something like &lsquo;<samp class="samp">git diff ...</samp>&rsquo;
inside the stow package, and finally either kept (e.g. via &lsquo;<samp class="samp">git
commit ...</samp>&rsquo;) or discarded (&lsquo;<samp class="samp">git checkout HEAD ...</samp>&rsquo;).
</p>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-dry-run"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-simulated-run"></a>
</dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">-n</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--no</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--simulate</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Do not perform any operations that modify the file system; in combination with
<samp class="option">-v</samp> can be used to merely show what would happen.
</p>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-verbosity-levels"></a>
</dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">-v</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--verbose[=<var class="var">n</var>]</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Send verbose output to standard error describing what Stow is
doing.  Verbosity levels are from 0 to 5; 0 is the default.  Using
<samp class="option">-v</samp> or <samp class="option">--verbose</samp> increases the verbosity by one; using
&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--verbose=<var class="var">n</var></samp>&rsquo; sets it to <var class="var">n</var>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">-p</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--compat</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Scan the whole target tree when unstowing.  By default, only directories
specified in the <em class="dfn">installation image</em> are scanned during an unstow
operation.  Previously Stow scanned the whole tree, which can be
prohibitive if your target tree is very large, but on the other hand has
the advantage of unstowing previously stowed links which are no longer
present in the installation image and therefore orphaned.  This option
restores the legacy behaviour; however, the <samp class="option">--badlinks</samp> option
to the <code class="command">chkstow</code> utility may be a better way of ensuring that
your installation does not have any dangling symlinks (see <a class="pxref" href="#Target-Maintenance">Target Maintenance</a>).
</p>
</dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">-V</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--version</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Show Stow version number, and exit.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">-h</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--help</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Show Stow command syntax, and exit.
</p></dd>
</dl>

<p>The following <var class="var">action flags</var> are supported:
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">-D</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--delete</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Delete (unstow) the package name(s) that follow this option from the <em class="dfn">target
directory</em>. This option may be repeated any number of times.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">-R</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--restow</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Restow (first unstow, then stow again) the package names that follow this
option.  This is useful for pruning obsolete symlinks from the target tree
after updating the software in a package. This option may be repeated any
number of times.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">-S</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--stow</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>explictly stow the package name(s) that follow this option.  May be
omitted if you are not using the <samp class="option">-D</samp> or <samp class="option">-R</samp> options in the
same invocation.  See <a class="xref" href="#Mixing-Operations">Mixing Operations</a>, for details of when you
might like to use this feature. This option may be repeated any number
of times.
</p></dd>
</dl>


<hr>
</div>
<div class="chapter-level-extent" id="Ignore-Lists">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#Installing-Packages" accesskey="n" rel="next">Installing Packages</a>, Previous: <a href="#Invoking-Stow" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Invoking Stow</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h2 class="chapter" id="Ignore-Lists-1">4 Ignore Lists</h2>

<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-ignore-lists"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-ignoring-files-and-directories"></a>


<ul class="mini-toc">
<li><a href="#Motivation-For-Ignore-Lists" accesskey="1">Motivation For Ignore Lists</a></li>
<li><a href="#Types-And-Syntax-Of-Ignore-Lists" accesskey="2">Types And Syntax Of Ignore Lists</a></li>
<li><a href="#Justification-For-Yet-Another-Set-Of-Ignore-Files" accesskey="3">Justification For Yet Another Set Of Ignore Files</a></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<div class="section-level-extent" id="Motivation-For-Ignore-Lists">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#Types-And-Syntax-Of-Ignore-Lists" accesskey="n" rel="next">Types And Syntax Of Ignore Lists</a>, Previous: <a href="#Ignore-Lists" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Ignore Lists</a>, Up: <a href="#Ignore-Lists" accesskey="u" rel="up">Ignore Lists</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h3 class="section" id="Motivation-For-Ignore-Lists-1">4.1 Motivation For Ignore Lists</h3>

<p>In many situations, there will exist files under the package
directories which it would be undesirable to stow into the target
directory.  For example, files related version control such as
<samp class="file">.gitignore</samp>, <samp class="file">CVS</samp>, <samp class="file">*,v</samp> (RCS files) should typically
not have symlinks from the target tree pointing to them.  Also there
may be files or directories relating to the build of the package which
are not needed at run-time.
</p>
<p>In these cases, it can be rather cumbersome to specify a
<samp class="option">--ignore</samp> parameter for each file or directory to be ignored.
This could be worked around by ensuring the existence of
<samp class="file">~/.stowrc</samp> containing multiple <samp class="option">--ignore</samp> lines, or if a
different set of files/directories should be ignored depending on
which stow package is involved, a <samp class="file">.stowrc</samp> file for each stow
package, but this would require the user to ensure that they were in
the correct directory before invoking stow, which would be tedious and
error-prone.  Furthermore, since Stow shifts parameters from
<samp class="file">.stowrc</samp> onto ARGV at run-time, it could clutter up the process
table with excessively long parameter lists, or even worse, exceed the
operating system&rsquo;s limit for process arguments.
</p>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-ignore-lists-1"></a>
<p>Therefore in addition to <samp class="option">--ignore</samp> parameters, Stow provides a
way to specify lists of files and directories to ignore.
</p>
<hr>
</div>
<div class="section-level-extent" id="Types-And-Syntax-Of-Ignore-Lists">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#Justification-For-Yet-Another-Set-Of-Ignore-Files" accesskey="n" rel="next">Justification For Yet Another Set Of Ignore Files</a>, Previous: <a href="#Motivation-For-Ignore-Lists" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Motivation For Ignore Lists</a>, Up: <a href="#Ignore-Lists" accesskey="u" rel="up">Ignore Lists</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h3 class="section" id="Types-And-Syntax-Of-Ignore-Lists-1">4.2 Types And Syntax Of Ignore Lists</h3>

<p>If you put Perl regular expressions, one per line, in a
<samp class="file">.stow-local-ignore</samp> file within any top level package directory,
in which case any file or directory within that package matching any
of these regular expressions will be ignored.  In the absence of this
package-specific ignore list, Stow will instead use the contents of
<samp class="file">~/.stow-global-ignore</samp>, if it exists.  If neither the
package-local or global ignore list exist, Stow will use its own
built-in default ignore list, which serves as a useful example of the
format of these ignore list files:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="verbatim"># Comments and blank lines are allowed.

RCS
.+,v

CVS
\.\#.+       # CVS conflict files / emacs lock files
\.cvsignore

\.svn
_darcs
\.hg

\.git
\.gitignore
\.gitmodules

.+~          # emacs backup files
\#.*\#       # emacs autosave files

^/README.*
^/LICENSE.*
^/COPYING
</pre></div>

<p>Stow first iterates through the chosen ignore list (built-in, global,
or package-local) as per above, stripping out comments (if you want to
include the &lsquo;<samp class="samp">#</samp>&rsquo; symbol in a regular expression, escape it with a
blackslash) and blank lines, placing each regular expressions into one
of two sets depending on whether it contains the &lsquo;<samp class="samp">/</samp>&rsquo; forward
slash symbol.
</p>
<p>Then in order to determine whether a file or directory should be
ignored:
</p>
<ol class="enumerate">
<li> Stow calculates its path relative to the top-level package directory,
prefixing that with &lsquo;<samp class="samp">/</samp>&rsquo;.  If any of the regular expressions
containing a &lsquo;<samp class="samp">/</samp>&rsquo; <em class="emph">exactly</em><a class="footnote" id="DOCF4" href="#FOOT4"><sup>4</sup></a> match
a subpath<a class="footnote" id="DOCF5" href="#FOOT5"><sup>5</sup></a> of this relative path, then the file or
directory will be ignored.

</li><li> If none of the regular expressions containing a &lsquo;<samp class="samp">/</samp>&rsquo; match in the
manner described above, Stow checks whether the
<em class="emph">basename</em><a class="footnote" id="DOCF6" href="#FOOT6"><sup>6</sup></a> of the file or directory matches
<em class="emph">exactly</em> against the remaining regular expressions which do not
contain a &lsquo;<samp class="samp">/</samp>&rsquo;, and if so, ignores the file or directory.

</li><li> Otherwise, the file or directory is not ignored.
</li></ol>


<p>For example, if a file <samp class="file">bazqux</samp> is in the <samp class="file">foo/bar</samp>
subdirectory of the package directory, Stow would use
&lsquo;<samp class="samp">/foo/bar/bazqux</samp>&rsquo; as the text for matching against regular
expressions which contain &lsquo;<samp class="samp">/</samp>&rsquo;, and &lsquo;<samp class="samp">bazqux</samp>&rsquo; as the text for
matching against regular expressions which don&rsquo;t contain &lsquo;<samp class="samp">/</samp>&rsquo;.
Then regular expressions &lsquo;<samp class="samp">bazqux</samp>&rsquo;, &lsquo;<samp class="samp">baz.*</samp>&rsquo;, &lsquo;<samp class="samp">.*qux</samp>&rsquo;,
&lsquo;<samp class="samp">bar/.*x</samp>&rsquo;, and &lsquo;<samp class="samp">^/foo/.*qux</samp>&rsquo; would all match (causing the
file to be ignored), whereas &lsquo;<samp class="samp">bar</samp>&rsquo;, &lsquo;<samp class="samp">baz</samp>&rsquo;, &lsquo;<samp class="samp">qux</samp>&rsquo;, and
&lsquo;<samp class="samp">o/bar/b</samp>&rsquo; would not (although &lsquo;<samp class="samp">bar</samp>&rsquo; would cause its parent
directory to be ignored and prevent Stow from recursing into that
anyway, in which case the file <samp class="file">bazqux</samp> would not even be
considered for stowing).
</p>
<p>As a special exception to the above algorithm, any
<samp class="file">.stow-local-ignore</samp> present in the top-level package directory
is <em class="emph">always</em> ignored, regardless of the contents of any ignore
list, because this file serves no purpose outside the stow directory.
</p>
<hr>
</div>
<div class="section-level-extent" id="Justification-For-Yet-Another-Set-Of-Ignore-Files">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Previous: <a href="#Types-And-Syntax-Of-Ignore-Lists" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Types And Syntax Of Ignore Lists</a>, Up: <a href="#Ignore-Lists" accesskey="u" rel="up">Ignore Lists</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h3 class="section" id="Justification-For-Yet-Another-Set-Of-Ignore-Files-1">4.3 Justification For Yet Another Set Of Ignore Files</h3>

<p>The reader may note that this format is very similar to existing
ignore list file formats, such as those for <code class="command">cvs</code>, <code class="command">git</code>,
<code class="command">rsync</code> etc., and wonder if another set of ignore lists is
justified.  However there are good reasons why Stow does not simply
check for the presence of say, <samp class="file">.cvsignore</samp>, and use that if it
exists.  Firstly, there is no guarantee that a stow package would
contain any version control meta-data, or permit introducing this if
it didn&rsquo;t already exist.
</p>
<p>Secondly even if it did, version control system ignore lists generally
reflect <em class="emph">build-time</em> ignores rather than <em class="emph">install-time</em>, and
there may be some intermediate or temporary files on those ignore
lists generated during development or at build-time which it would be
inappropriate to stow, even though many files generated at build-time
(binaries, libraries, documentation etc.) certainly do need to be
stowed.  Similarly, if a file is <em class="emph">not</em> in the version control
system&rsquo;s ignore list, there is no way of knowing whether the file is
intended for end use, let alone whether the version control system is
tracking it or not.
</p>
<p>Therefore it seems clear that ignore lists provided by version control
systems do not provide sufficient information for Stow to determine
which files and directories to stow, and so it makes sense for Stow to
support independent ignore lists.
</p>
<hr>
</div>
</div>
<div class="chapter-level-extent" id="Installing-Packages">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#Deleting-Packages" accesskey="n" rel="next">Deleting Packages</a>, Previous: <a href="#Ignore-Lists" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Ignore Lists</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h2 class="chapter" id="Installing-Packages-1">5 Installing Packages</h2>

<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-installation"></a>
<p>The default action of Stow is to install a package.  This means creating
symlinks in the target tree that point into the package tree.  Stow
attempts to do this with as few symlinks as possible; in other words, if
Stow can create a single symlink that points to an entire subtree within
the package tree, it will choose to do that rather than create a
directory in the target tree and populate it with symlinks.
</p>
<a class="anchor" id="tree-folding"></a><ul class="mini-toc">
<li><a href="#Tree-folding" accesskey="1">Tree folding</a></li>
<li><a href="#Tree-unfolding-1" accesskey="2">Tree unfolding</a></li>
<li><a href="#Ownership" accesskey="3">Ownership</a></li>
<li><a href="#Conflicts-during-installation" accesskey="4">Conflicts during installation</a></li>
</ul>
<div class="section-level-extent" id="Tree-folding">
<h3 class="section">5.1 Tree folding</h3>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-tree-folding"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-directory-folding"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-folding-trees"></a>
<p>For example, suppose that no packages have yet been installed in
<samp class="file">/usr/local</samp>; it&rsquo;s completely empty (except for the <samp class="file">stow</samp>
subdirectory, of course).  Now suppose the Perl package is installed.
Recall that it includes the following directories in its installation
image:  <samp class="file">bin</samp>; <samp class="file">info</samp>; <samp class="file">lib/perl</samp>; <samp class="file">man/man1</samp>.
Rather than creating the directory <samp class="file">/usr/local/bin</samp> and populating
it with symlinks to <samp class="file">../stow/perl/bin/perl</samp> and
<samp class="file">../stow/perl/bin/a2p</samp> (and so on), Stow will create a
single symlink, <samp class="file">/usr/local/bin</samp>, which points to
<samp class="file">stow/perl/bin</samp>.  In this way, it still works to refer to
<samp class="file">/usr/local/bin/perl</samp> and <samp class="file">/usr/local/bin/a2p</samp>, and fewer
symlinks have been created.  This is called <em class="dfn">tree folding</em>, since an
entire subtree is &ldquo;folded&rdquo; into a single symlink.
</p>
<p>To complete this example, Stow will also create the symlink
<samp class="file">/usr/local/info</samp> pointing to <samp class="file">stow/perl/info</samp>; the symlink
<samp class="file">/usr/local/lib</samp> pointing to <samp class="file">stow/perl/lib</samp>; and the symlink
<samp class="file">/usr/local/man</samp> pointing to <samp class="file">stow/perl/man</samp>.
</p>
<p>Now suppose that instead of installing the Perl package into an empty
target tree, the target tree is not empty to begin with.  Instead, it
contains several files and directories installed under a different
system-administration philosophy.  In particular, <samp class="file">/usr/local/bin</samp>
already exists and is a directory, as are <samp class="file">/usr/local/lib</samp> and
<samp class="file">/usr/local/man/man1</samp>.  In this case, Stow will descend into
<samp class="file">/usr/local/bin</samp> and create symlinks to
<samp class="file">../stow/perl/bin/perl</samp> and <samp class="file">../stow/perl/bin/a2p</samp> (etc.),
and it will descend into <samp class="file">/usr/local/lib</samp> and create the
tree-folding symlink <samp class="file">perl</samp> pointing to
<samp class="file">../stow/perl/lib/perl</samp>, and so on.  As a rule, Stow only
descends as far as necessary into the target tree when it can create a
tree-folding symlink.  However, this behaviour can be changed via
the <samp class="option">--no-folding</samp> option; see <a class="pxref" href="#Invoking-Stow">Invoking Stow</a>.
</p>
<a class="anchor" id="Tree-unfolding"></a></div>
<div class="section-level-extent" id="Tree-unfolding-1">
<h3 class="section">5.2 Tree unfolding</h3>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-splitting-open-folded-trees"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-unfolding-trees"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-tree-unfolding"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-tree-unsplitting"></a>
<p>The time often comes when a tree-folding symlink has to be undone
because another package uses one or more of the folded subdirectories in
its installation image.  This operation is called <em class="dfn">splitting open</em> or
<em class="dfn">unfolding</em> a folded tree.  It involves removing the original symlink from
the target tree, creating a true directory in its place, and then populating the
new directory with symlinks to the newly-installed package <em class="emph">and</em> to
the old package that used the old symlink.  For example, suppose that
after installing Perl into an empty <samp class="file">/usr/local</samp>, we wish to
install Emacs.  Emacs&rsquo;s installation image includes a <samp class="file">bin</samp>
directory containing the <samp class="file">emacs</samp> and <samp class="file">etags</samp> executables,
among others.  Stow must make these files appear to be installed
in <samp class="file">/usr/local/bin</samp>, but presently <samp class="file">/usr/local/bin</samp> is a
symlink to <samp class="file">stow/perl/bin</samp>.  Stow therefore takes the
following steps:  the symlink <samp class="file">/usr/local/bin</samp> is deleted; the
directory <samp class="file">/usr/local/bin</samp> is created; links are made from
<samp class="file">/usr/local/bin</samp> to <samp class="file">../stow/emacs/bin/emacs</samp> and
<samp class="file">../stow/emacs/bin/etags</samp>; and links are made from
<samp class="file">/usr/local/bin</samp> to <samp class="file">../stow/perl/bin/perl</samp> and
<samp class="file">../stow/perl/bin/a2p</samp>.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section-level-extent" id="Ownership">
<h3 class="section">5.3 Ownership</h3>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-ownership"></a>
<p>When splitting open a folded tree, Stow makes sure that the
symlink it is about to remove points inside a valid package in the
current stow directory.  <em class="emph">Stow will never delete anything
that it doesn&rsquo;t own</em>.  Stow &ldquo;owns&rdquo; everything living in the
target tree that points into a package in the stow directory.  Anything
Stow owns, it can recompute if lost: symlinks that point into a package in
the stow directory, or directories that only contain symlinks that stow
&ldquo;owns&rdquo;.   Note that by this definition, Stow doesn&rsquo;t &ldquo;own&rdquo; anything
<em class="emph">in</em> the stow directory or in any of the packages.
</p>
</div>
<div class="section-level-extent" id="Conflicts-during-installation">
<h3 class="section">5.4 Conflicts during installation</h3>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-conflicts"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-installation-conflicts"></a>
<p>If Stow needs to create a directory or a symlink in the target
tree and it cannot because that name is already in use and is not owned
by Stow, then a <em class="dfn">conflict</em> has arisen.  See <a class="xref" href="#Conflicts">Conflicts</a>.
</p>

<hr>
</div>
</div>
<div class="chapter-level-extent" id="Deleting-Packages">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#Conflicts" accesskey="n" rel="next">Conflicts</a>, Previous: <a href="#Installing-Packages" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Installing Packages</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h2 class="chapter" id="Deleting-Packages-1">6 Deleting Packages</h2>

<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-deletion"></a>
<p>When the <samp class="option">-D</samp> option is given, the action of Stow is to
delete a package from the target tree.  Note that Stow will not
delete anything it doesn&rsquo;t &ldquo;own&rdquo;.  Deleting a package does <em class="emph">not</em>
mean removing it from the stow directory or discarding the package
tree.
</p>
<p>To delete a package, Stow recursively scans the target tree, skipping over any
directory that is not included in the installation image.<a class="footnote" id="DOCF7" href="#FOOT7"><sup>7</sup></a>
For example, if the target directory is <samp class="file">/usr/local</samp> and the
installation image for the package being deleted has only a <samp class="file">bin</samp>
directory and a <samp class="file">man</samp> directory at the top level, then we only scan
<samp class="file">/usr/local/bin</samp> and  <samp class="file">/usr/local/man</samp>, and not
<samp class="file">/usr/local/lib</samp> or <samp class="file">/usr/local/share</samp>, or for that matter
<samp class="file">/usr/local/stow</samp>.  Any symlink it finds that points into the package
being deleted is removed.  Any directory that contained only symlinks to the
package being deleted is removed.
</p>
<a class="anchor" id="tree-refolding"></a><ul class="mini-toc">
<li><a href="#Refolding-_0060_0060foldable_0027_0027-trees_002e" accesskey="1">Refolding &ldquo;foldable&rdquo; trees.</a></li>
</ul>
<div class="section-level-extent" id="Refolding-_0060_0060foldable_0027_0027-trees_002e">
<h3 class="section">6.1 Refolding &ldquo;foldable&rdquo; trees.</h3>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-refolding-trees"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-tree-refolding"></a>

<p>After removing symlinks and empty subdirectories, any directory that
contains only symlinks to a single other package is considered to be a
previously &ldquo;folded&rdquo; tree that was &ldquo;split open.&rdquo;  Stow will refold
the tree by removing the symlinks to the surviving package, removing
the directory, then linking the directory back to the surviving
package.  However, this behaviour can be prevented via the
<samp class="option">--no-folding</samp> option; see <a class="pxref" href="#Invoking-Stow">Invoking Stow</a>.
</p>
<hr>
</div>
</div>
<div class="chapter-level-extent" id="Conflicts">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#Mixing-Operations" accesskey="n" rel="next">Mixing Operations</a>, Previous: <a href="#Deleting-Packages" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Deleting Packages</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h2 class="chapter" id="Conflicts-1">7 Conflicts</h2>

<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-conflicts-1"></a>
<p>If, during installation, a file or symlink exists in the target tree and
has the same name as something Stow needs to create, and if the
existing name is not a folded tree that can be split open, then a
<em class="dfn">conflict</em> has arisen.  A conflict also occurs if a directory exists
where Stow needs to place a symlink to a non-directory.  On the
other hand, if the existing name is merely a symlink that already points
where Stow needs it to, then no conflict has occurred.  (Thus it
is harmless to install a package that has already been installed.)
</p>
<p>For complex packages, scanning the stow and target trees in tandem,
and deciding whether to make directories or links, split-open or fold
directories, can actually take a long time (a number of seconds).
Moreover, an accurate analysis of potential conflicts requires us to
take into account all of these operations.
</p>
<a class="anchor" id="Deferred-Operation"></a><ul class="mini-toc">
<li><a href="#Deferred-Operation-1" accesskey="1">Deferred Operation</a></li>
</ul>
<div class="section-level-extent" id="Deferred-Operation-1">
<h3 class="section">7.1 Deferred Operation</h3>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-deferred-operation"></a>

<p>Since version 2.0, Stow now adopts a two-phase algorithm, first
scanning for any potential conflicts before any stowing or unstowing
operations are performed.  If any conflicts are found, they are
displayed and then Stow terminates without making any modifications to
the filesystem.  This means that there is much less risk of a package
being partially stowed or unstowed due to conflicts.
</p>
<p>Prior to version 2.0, if a conflict was discovered, the stow or unstow
operation could be aborted mid-flow, leaving the target tree in an
inconsistent state.
</p>
<hr>
</div>
</div>
<div class="chapter-level-extent" id="Mixing-Operations">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#Multiple-Stow-Directories" accesskey="n" rel="next">Multiple Stow Directories</a>, Previous: <a href="#Conflicts" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Conflicts</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h2 class="chapter" id="Mixing-Operations-1">8 Mixing Operations</h2>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-mixing-operations"></a>

<p>Since version 2.0, multiple distinct actions can be specified in a single
invocation of GNU Stow.  For example, to update an installation of Emacs from
version 21.3 to 21.4a you can now do the following:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">stow -D emacs-21.3 -S emacs-21.4a
</pre></div>

<p>which will replace emacs-21.3 with emacs-21.4a using a single invocation.
</p>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-deferred-operation-1"></a>
<p>This is much faster and cleaner than performing two separate
invocations of stow, because redundant folding/unfolding operations
can be factored out.  In addition, all the operations are calculated
and merged before being executed (see <a class="pxref" href="#Deferred-Operation">Deferred Operation</a>), so the
amount of time in which GNU Emacs is unavailable is minimised.
</p>
<p>You can mix and match any number of actions, for example,
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">stow -S pkg1 pkg2 -D pkg3 pkg4 -S pkg5 -R pkg6
</pre></div>

<p>will unstow pkg3, pkg4 and pkg6, then stow pkg1, pkg2, pkg5 and pkg6.
</p>
<hr>
</div>
<div class="chapter-level-extent" id="Multiple-Stow-Directories">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#Target-Maintenance" accesskey="n" rel="next">Target Maintenance</a>, Previous: <a href="#Mixing-Operations" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Mixing Operations</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h2 class="chapter" id="Multiple-Stow-Directories-1">9 Multiple Stow Directories</h2>

<p>If there are two or more system administrators who wish to maintain
software separately, or if there is any other reason to want two or more
stow directories, it can be done by creating a file named <samp class="file">.stow</samp>
in each stow directory.  The presence of <samp class="file">/usr/local/foo/.stow</samp>
informs Stow that, though <samp class="file">foo</samp> is not the current stow
directory, even if it is a subdirectory of the target directory,
nevertheless it is <em class="emph">a</em> stow directory and as such Stow
doesn&rsquo;t &ldquo;own&rdquo; anything in it (see <a class="pxref" href="#Installing-Packages">Installing Packages</a>).  This will
protect the contents of <samp class="file">foo</samp> from a &lsquo;<samp class="samp">stow -D</samp>&rsquo;, for instance.
</p>

<p>When multiple stow directories share a target tree, if a tree-folding
symlink is encountered and needs to be split open during an
installation, as long as the top-level stow directory into which the
existing symlink points contains <samp class="file">.stow</samp>, Stow knows how to split
open the tree in the correct manner.
</p>
<hr>
</div>
<div class="chapter-level-extent" id="Target-Maintenance">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#Resource-Files" accesskey="n" rel="next">Resource Files</a>, Previous: <a href="#Multiple-Stow-Directories" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Multiple Stow Directories</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h2 class="chapter" id="Target-Maintenance-1">10 Target Maintenance</h2>

<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-maintenance"></a>
<p>From time to time you will need to clean up your target tree.  Since
version 2, Stow provides a new utility <code class="command">chkstow</code> to help with
this.  It includes three operational modes which performs checks that
would generally be too expensive to be performed during normal stow
execution.
</p>
<p>The syntax of the <code class="command">chkstow</code> command is:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">chkstow [<var class="var">options</var>]
</pre></div>

<p>The following options are supported:
</p>
<dl class="table">
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">-t <var class="var">dir</var></samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--target=<var class="var">dir</var></samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Set the target directory to <var class="var">dir</var> instead of the parent of the stow
directory.  Defaults to the parent of the stow directory, so it is typical to
execute <code class="command">stow</code> from the directory <samp class="file">/usr/local/stow</samp>.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">-b</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--badlinks</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Checks target directory for bogus symbolic links. That is, links that point to
non-existent files.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">-a</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--aliens</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Checks for files in the target directory that are not symbolic links. The
target directory should be managed by stow alone, except for directories that
contain a <samp class="file">.stow</samp> file.
</p>
</dd>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">-l</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dt>&lsquo;<samp class="samp">--list</samp>&rsquo;</dt>
<dd><p>Will display the target package for every symbolic link in the stow target
directory.
</p>
</dd>
</dl>

<hr>
</div>
<div class="chapter-level-extent" id="Resource-Files">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#Compile_002dtime-vs_002e-Install_002dtime" accesskey="n" rel="next">Compile-time vs. Install-time</a>, Previous: <a href="#Target-Maintenance" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Target Maintenance</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h2 class="chapter" id="Resource-Files-1">11 Resource Files</h2>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-resource-files"></a>
<a class="index-entry-id" id="index-configuration-files"></a>

<p>Default command line options may be set in <samp class="file">.stowrc</samp> (current
directory) or <samp class="file">~/.stowrc</samp> (home directory). These are parsed in
that order, and are appended together if they both exist. The effect of
the options in the resource file is similar to simply prepending the
options to the command line. This feature can be used for some
interesting effects.
</p>
<p>For example, suppose your site uses more than one stow directory, perhaps in
order to share around responsibilities with a number of systems
administrators. One of the administrators might have the following in their
<samp class="file">~/.stowrc</samp> file:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">--dir=/usr/local/stow2
--target=/usr/local
--ignore='~'
--ignore='^CVS'
</pre></div>

<p>so that the <code class="command">stow</code> command will default to operating on the
<samp class="file">/usr/local/stow2</samp> directory, with <samp class="file">/usr/local</samp> as the
target, and ignoring vi backup files and CVS directories.
</p>
<p>If you had a stow directory <samp class="file">/usr/local/stow/perl-extras</samp> that
was only used for Perl modules, then you might place the following in
<samp class="file">/usr/local/stow/perl-extras/.stowrc</samp>:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">--dir=/usr/local/stow/perl-extras
--target=/usr/local
--override=bin
--override=man
--ignore='perllocal\.pod'
--ignore='\.packlist'
--ignore='\.bs'
</pre></div>

<p>so that when you are in the <samp class="file">/usr/local/stow/perl-extras</samp>
directory, <code class="command">stow</code> will regard any subdirectories as stow
packages, with <samp class="file">/usr/local</samp> as the target (rather than the
immediate parent directory <samp class="file">/usr/local/stow</samp>), overriding any
pre-existing links to bin files or man pages, and ignoring some cruft
that gets installed by default.
</p>
<p>If an option is provided both on the command line and in a resource file,
the command line option takes precedence. For options that provide a single
value, such as <code class="command">--target</code> or <code class="command">--dir</code>, the command line
option will overwrite any options in the resource file. For options that can
be given more than once, <code class="command">--ignore</code> for example, command line
options and resource options are appended together.
</p>
<p>For options that take a file path, environment variables and the tilde
character (<code class="command">~</code>) are expanded. An environment variable can be
given in either the <code class="command">$VAR</code> or <code class="command">${VAR}</code> form. To
prevent expansion, escape the <code class="command">$</code> or <code class="command">~</code> with a
backslash.  Since these values are first subject to standard shell
quoting rules, if you want special characters such as <code class="command">\b</code> or
<code class="command">$</code> to be treated as regular expression assertions then they
will need extra escaping, i.e. <code class="command">\\b</code> and <code class="command">\\\$</code>
respectively.
</p>
<p>The options <code class="command">-D</code>, <code class="command">-S</code>, and <code class="command">-R</code> are ignored in
resource files. This is also true of any package names given in the
resource file.
</p>
<hr>
</div>
<div class="chapter-level-extent" id="Compile_002dtime-vs_002e-Install_002dtime">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#Bootstrapping" accesskey="n" rel="next">Bootstrapping</a>, Previous: <a href="#Resource-Files" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Resource Files</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h2 class="chapter" id="Compile_002dtime-vs_002e-Install_002dtime-1">12 Compile-time vs. Install-time</h2>

<p>Software whose installation is managed with Stow needs to be installed
in one place (the package directory, e.g. <samp class="file">/usr/local/stow/perl</samp>)
but needs to appear to run in another place (the target tree, e.g.,
<samp class="file">/usr/local</samp>).  Why is this important?  What&rsquo;s wrong with Perl, for
instance, looking for its files in <samp class="file">/usr/local/stow/perl</samp> instead
of in <samp class="file">/usr/local</samp>?
</p>
<p>The answer is that there may be another package, e.g.,
<samp class="file">/usr/local/stow/perl-extras</samp>, stowed under <samp class="file">/usr/local</samp>.  If
Perl is configured to find its files in <samp class="file">/usr/local/stow/perl</samp>, it
will never find the extra files in the &lsquo;<samp class="samp">perl-extras</samp>&rsquo; package, even
though they&rsquo;re intended to be found by Perl.  On the other hand, if Perl
looks for its files in <samp class="file">/usr/local</samp>, then it will find the
intermingled Perl and &lsquo;<samp class="samp">perl-extras</samp>&rsquo; files.
</p>
<p>This means that when you compile a package, you must tell it the
location of the run-time, or target tree; but when you install it, you
must place it in the stow tree.
</p>
<ul class="mini-toc">
<li><a href="#Advice-on-changing-compilation-and-installation-parameters" accesskey="1">Advice on changing compilation and installation parameters</a></li>
<li><a href="#GNU-Emacs" accesskey="2">GNU Emacs</a></li>
<li><a href="#Other-FSF-Software" accesskey="3">Other FSF Software</a></li>
<li><a href="#Cygnus-Software" accesskey="4">Cygnus Software</a></li>
<li><a href="#Perl-and-Perl-5-Modules" accesskey="5">Perl and Perl 5 Modules</a></li>
</ul>
<div class="section-level-extent" id="Advice-on-changing-compilation-and-installation-parameters">
<h3 class="section">12.1 Advice on changing compilation and installation parameters</h3>
<p>Some software packages allow you to specify, at compile-time, separate
locations for installation and for run-time.  Perl is one such package;
see <a class="ref" href="#Perl-and-Perl-5-Modules">Perl and Perl 5 Modules</a>.  Others allow you to compile the
package, then give a different destination in the &lsquo;<samp class="samp">make install</samp>&rsquo;
step without causing the binaries or other files to get rebuilt.  Most
GNU software falls into this category; Emacs is a notable exception.
See <a class="xref" href="#GNU-Emacs">GNU Emacs</a>, and <a class="ref" href="#Other-FSF-Software">Other FSF Software</a>.
</p>
<p>Still other software packages cannot abide the idea of separate
installation and run-time locations at all.  If you try to &lsquo;<samp class="samp">make
install prefix=/usr/local/stow/<var class="var">foo</var></samp>&rsquo;, then first the whole package
will be recompiled to hardwire the <samp class="file">/usr/local/stow/<var class="var">foo</var></samp>
path.  With these packages, it is best to compile normally, then run
&lsquo;<samp class="samp">make -n install</samp>&rsquo;, which should report all the steps needed to
install the just-built software.  Place this output into a file, edit
the commands in the file to remove recompilation steps and to reflect
the Stow-based installation location, and execute the edited file as a
shell script in place of &lsquo;<samp class="samp">make install</samp>&rsquo;.  Be sure to execute the
script using the same shell that &lsquo;<samp class="samp">make install</samp>&rsquo; would have used.
</p>
<p>(If you use GNU Make and a shell [such as GNU bash] that understands
<code class="command">pushd</code> and <code class="command">popd</code>, you can do the following:
</p>
<ol class="enumerate">
<li> Replace all lines matching &lsquo;<samp class="samp">make[<var class="var">n</var>]: Entering directory
<var class="var">dir</var></samp>&rsquo; with &lsquo;<samp class="samp">pushd <var class="var">dir</var></samp>&rsquo;.
</li><li> Replace all lines matching &lsquo;<samp class="samp">make[<var class="var">n</var>]: Leaving directory
<var class="var">dir</var></samp>&rsquo; with &lsquo;<samp class="samp">popd</samp>&rsquo;.
</li><li> Delete all lines matching &lsquo;<samp class="samp">make[<var class="var">n</var>]: Nothing to be done for
<var class="var">rule</var></samp>&rsquo;.
</li></ol>

<p>Then find other lines in the output containing <code class="command">cd</code> or <code class="command">make</code>
commands and rewrite or delete them.  In particular, you should be able
to delete sections of the script that resemble this:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">for i in <var class="var">dir_1</var> <var class="var">dir_2</var> <span class="r">&hellip;</span>; do \
  (cd $i; make <var class="var">args</var> <span class="r">&hellip;</span>) \
done
</pre></div>

<p>Note, that&rsquo;s &ldquo;should be able to,&rdquo; not &ldquo;can.&rdquo;  Be sure to modulate
these guidelines with plenty of your own intelligence.
</p>
<p>The details of stowing some specific packages are described in the
following sections.
</p>

<hr>
</div>
<div class="section-level-extent" id="GNU-Emacs">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#Other-FSF-Software" accesskey="n" rel="next">Other FSF Software</a>, Previous: <a href="#Compile_002dtime-vs_002e-Install_002dtime" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Compile-time vs. Install-time</a>, Up: <a href="#Compile_002dtime-vs_002e-Install_002dtime" accesskey="u" rel="up">Compile-time vs. Install-time</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h3 class="section" id="GNU-Emacs-1">12.2 GNU Emacs</h3>

<p>Although the Free Software Foundation has many enlightened practices
regarding Makefiles and software installation (see see <a class="pxref" href="#Other-FSF-Software">Other FSF Software</a>), Emacs, its flagship program, doesn&rsquo;t quite follow the
rules.  In particular, most GNU software allows you to write:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">make
make install prefix=/usr/local/stow/<var class="var">package</var>
</pre></div>

<p>If you try this with Emacs, then the new value for <var class="var">prefix</var> in the
&lsquo;<samp class="samp">make install</samp>&rsquo; step will cause some files to get recompiled with
the new value of <var class="var">prefix</var> wired into them.  In Emacs 19.23 and
later,<a class="footnote" id="DOCF8" href="#FOOT8"><sup>8</sup></a>
the way to work around this problem is:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">make
make install-arch-dep install-arch-indep prefix=/usr/local/stow/emacs
</pre></div>

<p>In 19.22 and some prior versions of Emacs, the workaround was:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">make
make do-install prefix=/usr/local/stow/emacs
</pre></div>

<hr>
</div>
<div class="section-level-extent" id="Other-FSF-Software">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#Cygnus-Software" accesskey="n" rel="next">Cygnus Software</a>, Previous: <a href="#GNU-Emacs" accesskey="p" rel="prev">GNU Emacs</a>, Up: <a href="#Compile_002dtime-vs_002e-Install_002dtime" accesskey="u" rel="up">Compile-time vs. Install-time</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h3 class="section" id="Other-FSF-Software-1">12.3 Other FSF Software</h3>

<p>The Free Software Foundation, the organization behind the GNU project,
has been unifying the build procedure for its tools for some time.
Thanks to its tools &lsquo;<samp class="samp">autoconf</samp>&rsquo; and &lsquo;<samp class="samp">automake</samp>&rsquo;, most packages
now respond well to these simple steps, with no other intervention
necessary:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">./configure <var class="var">options</var>
make
make install prefix=/usr/local/stow/<var class="var">package</var>
</pre></div>

<p>Hopefully, these tools can evolve to be aware of Stow-managed packages,
such that providing an option to &lsquo;<samp class="samp">configure</samp>&rsquo; can allow &lsquo;<samp class="samp">make</samp>&rsquo;
and &lsquo;<samp class="samp">make install</samp>&rsquo; steps to work correctly without needing to
&ldquo;fool&rdquo; the build process.
</p>
<hr>
</div>
<div class="section-level-extent" id="Cygnus-Software">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#Perl-and-Perl-5-Modules" accesskey="n" rel="next">Perl and Perl 5 Modules</a>, Previous: <a href="#Other-FSF-Software" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Other FSF Software</a>, Up: <a href="#Compile_002dtime-vs_002e-Install_002dtime" accesskey="u" rel="up">Compile-time vs. Install-time</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h3 class="section" id="Cygnus-Software-1">12.4 Cygnus Software</h3>

<p>Cygnus is a commercial supplier and supporter of GNU software.  It has
also written several of its own packages, released under the terms of
the GNU General Public License; and it has taken over the maintenance of
other packages.  Among the packages released by Cygnus are &lsquo;<samp class="samp">gdb</samp>&rsquo;,
&lsquo;<samp class="samp">gnats</samp>&rsquo;, and &lsquo;<samp class="samp">dejagnu</samp>&rsquo;.
</p>
<p>Cygnus packages have the peculiarity that each one unpacks into a
directory tree with a generic top-level Makefile, which is set up to
compile <em class="emph">all</em> of Cygnus&rsquo; packages, any number of which may reside
under the top-level directory.  In other words, even if you&rsquo;re only
building &lsquo;<samp class="samp">gnats</samp>&rsquo;, the top-level Makefile will look for, and try to
build, <samp class="file">gdb</samp> and <samp class="file">dejagnu</samp> subdirectories, among many others.
</p>
<p>The result is that if you try &lsquo;<samp class="samp">make -n install
prefix=/usr/local/stow/<var class="var">package</var></samp>&rsquo; at the top level of a Cygnus
package, you&rsquo;ll get a bewildering amount of output.  It will then be
very difficult to visually scan the output to see whether the install
will proceed correctly.  Unfortunately, it&rsquo;s not always clear how to
invoke an install from the subdirectory of interest.
</p>
<p>In cases like this, the best approach is to run your &lsquo;<samp class="samp">make install
prefix=<span class="r">&hellip;</span></samp>&rsquo;, but be ready to interrupt it if you detect that it
is recompiling files.  Usually it will work just fine; otherwise,
install manually.
</p>
<hr>
</div>
<div class="section-level-extent" id="Perl-and-Perl-5-Modules">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Previous: <a href="#Cygnus-Software" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Cygnus Software</a>, Up: <a href="#Compile_002dtime-vs_002e-Install_002dtime" accesskey="u" rel="up">Compile-time vs. Install-time</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h3 class="section" id="Perl-and-Perl-5-Modules-1">12.5 Perl and Perl 5 Modules</h3>

<p>Perl 4.036 allows you to specify different locations for installation
and for run-time.  It is the only widely-used package in this author&rsquo;s
experience that allows this, though hopefully more packages will adopt
this model.
</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the authors of Perl believed that only AFS sites need
this ability.  The configuration instructions for Perl 4 misleadingly
state that some occult means are used under AFS to transport files from
their installation tree to their run-time tree.  In fact, that confusion
arises from the fact that Depot, Stow&rsquo;s predecessor, originated at
Carnegie Mellon University, which was also the birthplace of AFS.  CMU&rsquo;s
need to separate install-time and run-time trees stemmed from its use of
Depot, not from AFS.
</p>
<p>The result of this confusion is that Perl 5&rsquo;s configuration script
doesn&rsquo;t even offer the option of separating install-time and run-time
trees <em class="emph">unless</em> you&rsquo;re running AFS.  Fortunately, after you&rsquo;ve
entered all the configuration settings, Perl&rsquo;s setup script gives you
the opportunity to edit those settings in a file called
<samp class="file">config.sh</samp>.  When prompted, you should edit this file and replace
occurrences of
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">inst<span class="r">&hellip;</span>/usr/local<span class="r">&hellip;</span>
</pre></div>

<p>with
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">inst<span class="r">&hellip;</span>/usr/local/stow/perl<span class="r">&hellip;</span>
</pre></div>

<p>You can do this with the following Unix command:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">sed 's,^\(inst.*/usr/local\),\1/stow/perl,' config.sh &gt; config.sh.new
mv config.sh.new config.sh
</pre></div>

<p>Hopefully, the Perl authors will correct this deficiency in Perl 5&rsquo;s
configuration mechanism.
</p>
<p>Perl 5 modules&mdash;i.e., extensions to Perl 5&mdash;generally conform to a set
of standards for building and installing them.  The standard says that
the package comes with a top-level <samp class="file">Makefile.PL</samp>, which is a Perl
script.  When it runs, it generates a <samp class="file">Makefile</samp>.
</p>
<p>If you followed the instructions above for editing <samp class="file">config.sh</samp> when
Perl was built, then when you create a <samp class="file">Makefile</samp> from a
<samp class="file">Makefile.PL</samp>, it will contain separate locations for run-time
(<samp class="file">/usr/local</samp>) and install-time (<samp class="file">/usr/local/stow/perl</samp>).
Thus you can do
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">perl Makefile.PL
make
make install
</pre></div>

<p>and the files will be installed into <samp class="file">/usr/local/stow/perl</samp>.
However, you might prefer each Perl module to be stowed separately.  In
that case, you must edit the resulting Makefile, replacing
<samp class="file">/usr/local/stow/perl</samp> with <samp class="file">/usr/local/stow/<var class="var">module</var></samp>.
The best way to do this is:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">perl Makefile.PL
find . -name Makefile -print | \
  xargs perl -pi~ -e 's,^(INST.*/stow)/perl,$1/<var class="var">module</var>,;'
make
make install
</pre></div>

<p>(The use of &lsquo;<samp class="samp">find</samp>&rsquo; and &lsquo;<samp class="samp">xargs</samp>&rsquo; ensures that all Makefiles in
the module&rsquo;s source tree, even those in subdirectories, get edited.)  A
good convention to follow is to name the stow directory for a Perl
<var class="var">module</var> <samp class="file">cpan.<var class="var">module</var></samp>, where &lsquo;<samp class="samp">cpan</samp>&rsquo; stands for
Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a collection of FTP sites that is
the source of most Perl 5 extensions.  This way, it&rsquo;s easy to tell at a
glance which of the subdirectories of <samp class="file">/usr/local/stow</samp> are Perl 5
extensions.
</p>
<p>When you stow separate Perl 5 modules separately, you are likely to
encounter conflicts (see <a class="pxref" href="#Conflicts">Conflicts</a>) with files named <samp class="file">.exists</samp>
and <samp class="file">perllocal.pod</samp>.  One way to work around this is to remove
those files before stowing the module.  If you use the
<samp class="file">cpan.<var class="var">module</var></samp> naming convention, you can simply do this:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">cd /usr/local/stow
find cpan.* \( -name .exists -o -name perllocal.pod \) -print | \
  xargs rm
</pre></div>


<hr>
</div>
</div>
<div class="chapter-level-extent" id="Bootstrapping">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#Reporting-Bugs" accesskey="n" rel="next">Reporting Bugs</a>, Previous: <a href="#Compile_002dtime-vs_002e-Install_002dtime" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Compile-time vs. Install-time</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h2 class="chapter" id="Bootstrapping-1">13 Bootstrapping</h2>

<p>Suppose you have a stow directory all set up and ready to go:
<samp class="file">/usr/local/stow/perl</samp> contains the Perl installation,
<samp class="file">/usr/local/stow/stow</samp> contains Stow itself, and perhaps you have
other packages waiting to be stowed.  You&rsquo;d like to be able to do this:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">cd /usr/local/stow
stow -vv *
</pre></div>

<p>but <code class="command">stow</code> is not yet in your <code class="env">PATH</code>.  Nor can you do this:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">cd /usr/local/stow
stow/bin/stow -vv *
</pre></div>

<p>because the &lsquo;<samp class="samp">#!</samp>&rsquo; line at the beginning of <code class="command">stow</code> tries to
locate Perl (usually in <samp class="file">/usr/local/bin/perl</samp>), and that won&rsquo;t be
found.  The solution you must use is:
</p>
<div class="example">
<pre class="example-preformatted">cd /usr/local/stow
perl/bin/perl stow/bin/stow -vv *
</pre></div>

<hr>
</div>
<div class="chapter-level-extent" id="Reporting-Bugs">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#Known-Bugs" accesskey="n" rel="next">Known Bugs</a>, Previous: <a href="#Bootstrapping" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Bootstrapping</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h2 class="chapter" id="Reporting-Bugs-1">14 Reporting Bugs</h2>

<p>You can report bugs to the current maintainers in one of three ways:
</p>
<ol class="enumerate">
<li> Send e-mail to <a class="email" href="mailto:bug-stow@gnu.org">bug-stow@gnu.org</a>.

</li><li> File an issue in <a class="uref" href="https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=stow">the Savannah bug tracker</a>.

</li><li> File an issue in
<a class="uref" href="https://github.com/aspiers/stow/issues/">the GitHub project</a>.
</li></ol>

<p>While GitHub is arguably the most convenient of these three options, it
<a class="uref" href="https://www.gnu.org/software/repo-criteria-evaluation.html#GitHub">is not the most ethical or freedom-preserving way to host software
projects</a>.  Therefore the GitHub project may be
<a class="uref" href="https://github.com/aspiers/stow/issues/43">moved to a more ethical
hosting service</a> in the future.
</p>
<p>Before reporting a bug, it is recommended to check whether it is already
known, so please first see <a class="pxref" href="#Known-Bugs">Known Bugs</a>.
</p>
<p>When reporting a new bug, please include:
</p>
<ul class="itemize mark-bullet">
<li>the version number of Stow (&lsquo;<samp class="samp">stow --version</samp>&rsquo;);

</li><li>the version number of Perl (&lsquo;<samp class="samp">perl -v</samp>&rsquo;);

</li><li>the system information, which can often be obtained with &lsquo;<samp class="samp">uname
-a</samp>&rsquo;;

</li><li>a description of the bug;

</li><li>the precise command you gave;

</li><li>the output from the command (preferably verbose output, obtained by
adding &lsquo;<samp class="samp">--verbose=5</samp>&rsquo; to the Stow command line).
</li></ul>

<p>If you are really keen, consider developing a minimal test case and
creating a new test.  See the <samp class="file">t/</samp> directory in the source for lots
of examples, and the <samp class="file">CONTRIBUTING.md</samp> file for a guide on how to
contribute.
</p>
<p>Before reporting a bug, please read the manual carefully, especially
<a class="ref" href="#Known-Bugs">Known Bugs</a>, to see whether you&rsquo;re encountering
something that doesn&rsquo;t need reporting.
(see <a class="pxref" href="#Conflicts">Conflicts</a>).
</p>
<hr>
</div>
<div class="chapter-level-extent" id="Known-Bugs">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#GNU-General-Public-License" accesskey="n" rel="next">GNU General Public License</a>, Previous: <a href="#Reporting-Bugs" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Reporting Bugs</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h2 class="chapter" id="Known-Bugs-1">15 Known Bugs</h2>

<p>Known bugs can be found in the following locations:
</p>
<ul class="itemize mark-bullet">
<li><a class="uref" href="https://github.com/aspiers/stow/issues/">the GitHub issue tracker</a>

</li><li><a class="uref" href="https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?group=stow">the Savannah bug
tracker</a>

</li><li>the <a class="uref" href="https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-stow/">bug-stow list
archives</a>
</li></ul>

<p>If you think you have found a new bug, please see <a class="pxref" href="#Reporting-Bugs">Reporting Bugs</a>.
</p>
<hr>
</div>
<div class="unnumbered-level-extent" id="GNU-General-Public-License">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Next: <a href="#Index" accesskey="n" rel="next">Index</a>, Previous: <a href="#Known-Bugs" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Known Bugs</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h2 class="unnumbered" id="GNU-General-Public-License-1">GNU General Public License</h2>

<div class="center">Version 3, 29 June 2007
</div>

<div class="display">
<pre class="display-preformatted">Copyright &copy; 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc. <a class="url" href="https://fsf.org/">https://fsf.org/</a>

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this
license document, but changing it is not allowed.
</pre></div>

<h3 class="heading" id="Preamble">Preamble</h3>

<p>The GNU General Public License is a free, copyleft license for
software and other kinds of works.
</p>
<p>The licenses for most software and other practical works are designed
to take away your freedom to share and change the works.  By contrast,
the GNU General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom
to share and change all versions of a program&mdash;to make sure it remains
free software for all its users.  We, the Free Software Foundation,
use the GNU General Public License for most of our software; it
applies also to any other work released this way by its authors.  You
can apply it to your programs, too.
</p>
<p>When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not
price.  Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you
have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for
them if you wish), that you receive source code or can get it if you
want it, that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new
free programs, and that you know you can do these things.
</p>
<p>To protect your rights, we need to prevent others from denying you
these rights or asking you to surrender the rights.  Therefore, you
have certain responsibilities if you distribute copies of the
software, or if you modify it: responsibilities to respect the freedom
of others.
</p>
<p>For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
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</p>
<p>Developers that use the GNU GPL protect your rights with two steps:
(1) assert copyright on the software, and (2) offer you this License
giving you legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify it.
</p>
<p>For the developers&rsquo; and authors&rsquo; protection, the GPL clearly explains
that there is no warranty for this free software.  For both users&rsquo; and
authors&rsquo; sake, the GPL requires that modified versions be marked as
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authors of previous versions.
</p>
<p>Some devices are designed to deny users access to install or run
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</p>
<p>Finally, every program is threatened constantly by software patents.
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</p>
<p>The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution and
modification follow.
</p>
<h3 class="heading" id="TERMS-AND-CONDITIONS">TERMS AND CONDITIONS</h3>

<ol class="enumerate" start="0">
<li> Definitions.

<p>&ldquo;This License&rdquo; refers to version 3 of the GNU General Public License.
</p>
<p>&ldquo;Copyright&rdquo; also means copyright-like laws that apply to other kinds
of works, such as semiconductor masks.
</p>
<p>&ldquo;The Program&rdquo; refers to any copyrightable work licensed under this
License.  Each licensee is addressed as &ldquo;you&rdquo;.  &ldquo;Licensees&rdquo; and
&ldquo;recipients&rdquo; may be individuals or organizations.
</p>
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<ol class="enumerate" type="a" start="1">
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obligated to ensure that it is available for as long as needed to
satisfy these requirements.

</li><li> Convey the object code using peer-to-peer transmission, provided you
inform other peers where the object code and Corresponding Source of
the work are being offered to the general public at no charge under
subsection 6d.

</li></ol>

<p>A separable portion of the object code, whose source code is excluded
from the Corresponding Source as a System Library, need not be
included in conveying the object code work.
</p>
<p>A &ldquo;User Product&rdquo; is either (1) a &ldquo;consumer product&rdquo;, which means any
tangible personal property which is normally used for personal,
family, or household purposes, or (2) anything designed or sold for
incorporation into a dwelling.  In determining whether a product is a
consumer product, doubtful cases shall be resolved in favor of
coverage.  For a particular product received by a particular user,
&ldquo;normally used&rdquo; refers to a typical or common use of that class of
product, regardless of the status of the particular user or of the way
in which the particular user actually uses, or expects or is expected
to use, the product.  A product is a consumer product regardless of
whether the product has substantial commercial, industrial or
non-consumer uses, unless such uses represent the only significant
mode of use of the product.
</p>
<p>&ldquo;Installation Information&rdquo; for a User Product means any methods,
procedures, authorization keys, or other information required to
install and execute modified versions of a covered work in that User
Product from a modified version of its Corresponding Source.  The
information must suffice to ensure that the continued functioning of
the modified object code is in no case prevented or interfered with
solely because modification has been made.
</p>
<p>If you convey an object code work under this section in, or with, or
specifically for use in, a User Product, and the conveying occurs as
part of a transaction in which the right of possession and use of the
User Product is transferred to the recipient in perpetuity or for a
fixed term (regardless of how the transaction is characterized), the
Corresponding Source conveyed under this section must be accompanied
by the Installation Information.  But this requirement does not apply
if neither you nor any third party retains the ability to install
modified object code on the User Product (for example, the work has
been installed in ROM).
</p>
<p>The requirement to provide Installation Information does not include a
requirement to continue to provide support service, warranty, or
updates for a work that has been modified or installed by the
recipient, or for the User Product in which it has been modified or
installed.  Access to a network may be denied when the modification
itself materially and adversely affects the operation of the network
or violates the rules and protocols for communication across the
network.
</p>
<p>Corresponding Source conveyed, and Installation Information provided,
in accord with this section must be in a format that is publicly
documented (and with an implementation available to the public in
source code form), and must require no special password or key for
unpacking, reading or copying.
</p>
</li><li> Additional Terms.

<p>&ldquo;Additional permissions&rdquo; are terms that supplement the terms of this
License by making exceptions from one or more of its conditions.
Additional permissions that are applicable to the entire Program shall
be treated as though they were included in this License, to the extent
that they are valid under applicable law.  If additional permissions
apply only to part of the Program, that part may be used separately
under those permissions, but the entire Program remains governed by
this License without regard to the additional permissions.
</p>
<p>When you convey a copy of a covered work, you may at your option
remove any additional permissions from that copy, or from any part of
it.  (Additional permissions may be written to require their own
removal in certain cases when you modify the work.)  You may place
additional permissions on material, added by you to a covered work,
for which you have or can give appropriate copyright permission.
</p>
<p>Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, for material you
add to a covered work, you may (if authorized by the copyright holders
of that material) supplement the terms of this License with terms:
</p>
<ol class="enumerate" type="a" start="1">
<li> Disclaiming warranty or limiting liability differently from the terms
of sections 15 and 16 of this License; or

</li><li> Requiring preservation of specified reasonable legal notices or author
attributions in that material or in the Appropriate Legal Notices
displayed by works containing it; or

</li><li> Prohibiting misrepresentation of the origin of that material, or
requiring that modified versions of such material be marked in
reasonable ways as different from the original version; or

</li><li> Limiting the use for publicity purposes of names of licensors or
authors of the material; or

</li><li> Declining to grant rights under trademark law for use of some trade
names, trademarks, or service marks; or

</li><li> Requiring indemnification of licensors and authors of that material by
anyone who conveys the material (or modified versions of it) with
contractual assumptions of liability to the recipient, for any
liability that these contractual assumptions directly impose on those
licensors and authors.
</li></ol>

<p>All other non-permissive additional terms are considered &ldquo;further
restrictions&rdquo; within the meaning of section 10.  If the Program as you
received it, or any part of it, contains a notice stating that it is
governed by this License along with a term that is a further
restriction, you may remove that term.  If a license document contains
a further restriction but permits relicensing or conveying under this
License, you may add to a covered work material governed by the terms
of that license document, provided that the further restriction does
not survive such relicensing or conveying.
</p>
<p>If you add terms to a covered work in accord with this section, you
must place, in the relevant source files, a statement of the
additional terms that apply to those files, or a notice indicating
where to find the applicable terms.
</p>
<p>Additional terms, permissive or non-permissive, may be stated in the
form of a separately written license, or stated as exceptions; the
above requirements apply either way.
</p>
</li><li> Termination.

<p>You may not propagate or modify a covered work except as expressly
provided under this License.  Any attempt otherwise to propagate or
modify it is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under
this License (including any patent licenses granted under the third
paragraph of section 11).
</p>
<p>However, if you cease all violation of this License, then your license
from a particular copyright holder is reinstated (a) provisionally,
unless and until the copyright holder explicitly and finally
terminates your license, and (b) permanently, if the copyright holder
fails to notify you of the violation by some reasonable means prior to
60 days after the cessation.
</p>
<p>Moreover, your license from a particular copyright holder is
reinstated permanently if the copyright holder notifies you of the
violation by some reasonable means, this is the first time you have
received notice of violation of this License (for any work) from that
copyright holder, and you cure the violation prior to 30 days after
your receipt of the notice.
</p>
<p>Termination of your rights under this section does not terminate the
licenses of parties who have received copies or rights from you under
this License.  If your rights have been terminated and not permanently
reinstated, you do not qualify to receive new licenses for the same
material under section 10.
</p>
</li><li> Acceptance Not Required for Having Copies.

<p>You are not required to accept this License in order to receive or run
a copy of the Program.  Ancillary propagation of a covered work
occurring solely as a consequence of using peer-to-peer transmission
to receive a copy likewise does not require acceptance.  However,
nothing other than this License grants you permission to propagate or
modify any covered work.  These actions infringe copyright if you do
not accept this License.  Therefore, by modifying or propagating a
covered work, you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so.
</p>
</li><li> Automatic Licensing of Downstream Recipients.

<p>Each time you convey a covered work, the recipient automatically
receives a license from the original licensors, to run, modify and
propagate that work, subject to this License.  You are not responsible
for enforcing compliance by third parties with this License.
</p>
<p>An &ldquo;entity transaction&rdquo; is a transaction transferring control of an
organization, or substantially all assets of one, or subdividing an
organization, or merging organizations.  If propagation of a covered
work results from an entity transaction, each party to that
transaction who receives a copy of the work also receives whatever
licenses to the work the party&rsquo;s predecessor in interest had or could
give under the previous paragraph, plus a right to possession of the
Corresponding Source of the work from the predecessor in interest, if
the predecessor has it or can get it with reasonable efforts.
</p>
<p>You may not impose any further restrictions on the exercise of the
rights granted or affirmed under this License.  For example, you may
not impose a license fee, royalty, or other charge for exercise of
rights granted under this License, and you may not initiate litigation
(including a cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that
any patent claim is infringed by making, using, selling, offering for
sale, or importing the Program or any portion of it.
</p>
</li><li> Patents.

<p>A &ldquo;contributor&rdquo; is a copyright holder who authorizes use under this
License of the Program or a work on which the Program is based.  The
work thus licensed is called the contributor&rsquo;s &ldquo;contributor version&rdquo;.
</p>
<p>A contributor&rsquo;s &ldquo;essential patent claims&rdquo; are all patent claims owned
or controlled by the contributor, whether already acquired or
hereafter acquired, that would be infringed by some manner, permitted
by this License, of making, using, or selling its contributor version,
but do not include claims that would be infringed only as a
consequence of further modification of the contributor version.  For
purposes of this definition, &ldquo;control&rdquo; includes the right to grant
patent sublicenses in a manner consistent with the requirements of
this License.
</p>
<p>Each contributor grants you a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free
patent license under the contributor&rsquo;s essential patent claims, to
make, use, sell, offer for sale, import and otherwise run, modify and
propagate the contents of its contributor version.
</p>
<p>In the following three paragraphs, a &ldquo;patent license&rdquo; is any express
agreement or commitment, however denominated, not to enforce a patent
(such as an express permission to practice a patent or covenant not to
sue for patent infringement).  To &ldquo;grant&rdquo; such a patent license to a
party means to make such an agreement or commitment not to enforce a
patent against the party.
</p>
<p>If you convey a covered work, knowingly relying on a patent license,
and the Corresponding Source of the work is not available for anyone
to copy, free of charge and under the terms of this License, through a
publicly available network server or other readily accessible means,
then you must either (1) cause the Corresponding Source to be so
available, or (2) arrange to deprive yourself of the benefit of the
patent license for this particular work, or (3) arrange, in a manner
consistent with the requirements of this License, to extend the patent
license to downstream recipients.  &ldquo;Knowingly relying&rdquo; means you have
actual knowledge that, but for the patent license, your conveying the
covered work in a country, or your recipient&rsquo;s use of the covered work
in a country, would infringe one or more identifiable patents in that
country that you have reason to believe are valid.
</p>
<p>If, pursuant to or in connection with a single transaction or
arrangement, you convey, or propagate by procuring conveyance of, a
covered work, and grant a patent license to some of the parties
receiving the covered work authorizing them to use, propagate, modify
or convey a specific copy of the covered work, then the patent license
you grant is automatically extended to all recipients of the covered
work and works based on it.
</p>
<p>A patent license is &ldquo;discriminatory&rdquo; if it does not include within the
scope of its coverage, prohibits the exercise of, or is conditioned on
the non-exercise of one or more of the rights that are specifically
granted under this License.  You may not convey a covered work if you
are a party to an arrangement with a third party that is in the
business of distributing software, under which you make payment to the
third party based on the extent of your activity of conveying the
work, and under which the third party grants, to any of the parties
who would receive the covered work from you, a discriminatory patent
license (a) in connection with copies of the covered work conveyed by
you (or copies made from those copies), or (b) primarily for and in
connection with specific products or compilations that contain the
covered work, unless you entered into that arrangement, or that patent
license was granted, prior to 28 March 2007.
</p>
<p>Nothing in this License shall be construed as excluding or limiting
any implied license or other defenses to infringement that may
otherwise be available to you under applicable patent law.
</p>
</li><li> No Surrender of Others&rsquo; Freedom.

<p>If conditions are imposed on you (whether by court order, agreement or
otherwise) that contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
excuse you from the conditions of this License.  If you cannot convey
a covered work so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under
this License and any other pertinent obligations, then as a
consequence you may not convey it at all.  For example, if you agree
to terms that obligate you to collect a royalty for further conveying
from those to whom you convey the Program, the only way you could
satisfy both those terms and this License would be to refrain entirely
from conveying the Program.
</p>
</li><li> Use with the GNU Affero General Public License.

<p>Notwithstanding any other provision of this License, you have
permission to link or combine any covered work with a work licensed
under version 3 of the GNU Affero General Public License into a single
combined work, and to convey the resulting work.  The terms of this
License will continue to apply to the part which is the covered work,
but the special requirements of the GNU Affero General Public License,
section 13, concerning interaction through a network will apply to the
combination as such.
</p>
</li><li> Revised Versions of this License.

<p>The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or new versions
of the GNU General Public License from time to time.  Such new
versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may
differ in detail to address new problems or concerns.
</p>
<p>Each version is given a distinguishing version number.  If the Program
specifies that a certain numbered version of the GNU General Public
License &ldquo;or any later version&rdquo; applies to it, you have the option of
following the terms and conditions either of that numbered version or
of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.  If
the Program does not specify a version number of the GNU General
Public License, you may choose any version ever published by the Free
Software Foundation.
</p>
<p>If the Program specifies that a proxy can decide which future versions
of the GNU General Public License can be used, that proxy&rsquo;s public
statement of acceptance of a version permanently authorizes you to
choose that version for the Program.
</p>
<p>Later license versions may give you additional or different
permissions.  However, no additional obligations are imposed on any
author or copyright holder as a result of your choosing to follow a
later version.
</p>
</li><li> Disclaimer of Warranty.

<p>THERE IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY
APPLICABLE LAW.  EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING THE COPYRIGHT
HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE PROGRAM &ldquo;AS IS&rdquo; WITHOUT
WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND
PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE PROGRAM PROVE
DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR
CORRECTION.
</p>
</li><li> Limitation of Liability.

<p>IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR AGREED TO IN WRITING
WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY OTHER PARTY WHO MODIFIES AND/OR
CONVEYS THE PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT
NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR
LOSSES SUSTAINED BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM
TO OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR OTHER
PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
</p>
</li><li> Interpretation of Sections 15 and 16.

<p>If the disclaimer of warranty and limitation of liability provided
above cannot be given local legal effect according to their terms,
reviewing courts shall apply local law that most closely approximates
an absolute waiver of all civil liability in connection with the
Program, unless a warranty or assumption of liability accompanies a
copy of the Program in return for a fee.
</p>
</li></ol>

<h3 class="heading" id="END-OF-TERMS-AND-CONDITIONS">END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS</h3>

<h3 class="heading" id="How-to-Apply-These-Terms-to-Your-New-Programs">How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs</h3>

<p>If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the greatest
possible use to the public, the best way to achieve this is to make it
free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these
terms.
</p>
<p>To do so, attach the following notices to the program.  It is safest
to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively
state the exclusion of warranty; and each file should have at least
the &ldquo;copyright&rdquo; line and a pointer to where the full notice is found.
</p>
<div class="example smallexample">
<pre class="example-preformatted"><var class="var">one line to give the program's name and a brief idea of what it does.</var>
Copyright (C) <var class="var">year</var> <var class="var">name of author</var>

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 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 FITNESS 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, see <a class="url" href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/">https://www.gnu.org/licenses/</a>.
</pre></div>

<p>Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail.
</p>
<p>If the program does terminal interaction, make it output a short
notice like this when it starts in an interactive mode:
</p>
<div class="example smallexample">
<pre class="example-preformatted"><var class="var">program</var> Copyright (C) <var class="var">year</var> <var class="var">name of author</var>
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details type &lsquo;<samp class="samp">show w</samp>&rsquo;.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions; type &lsquo;<samp class="samp">show c</samp>&rsquo; for details.
</pre></div>

<p>The hypothetical commands &lsquo;<samp class="samp">show w</samp>&rsquo; and &lsquo;<samp class="samp">show c</samp>&rsquo; should show
the appropriate parts of the General Public License.  Of course, your
program&rsquo;s commands might be different; for a GUI interface, you would
use an &ldquo;about box&rdquo;.
</p>
<p>You should also get your employer (if you work as a programmer) or school,
if any, to sign a &ldquo;copyright disclaimer&rdquo; for the program, if necessary.
For more information on this, and how to apply and follow the GNU GPL, see
<a class="url" href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/">https://www.gnu.org/licenses/</a>.
</p>
<p>The GNU General Public License does not permit incorporating your
program into proprietary programs.  If your program is a subroutine
library, you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary
applications with the library.  If this is what you want to do, use
the GNU Lesser General Public License instead of this License.  But
first, please read <a class="url" href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-not-lgpl.html">https://www.gnu.org/licenses/why-not-lgpl.html</a>.
</p>
<hr>
</div>
<div class="unnumbered-level-extent" id="Index">
<div class="nav-panel">
<p>
Previous: <a href="#GNU-General-Public-License" accesskey="p" rel="prev">GNU General Public License</a> &nbsp; [<a href="#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="#Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
</div>
<h2 class="unnumbered" id="Index-1">Index</h2>

<div class="printindex cp-printindex">
<table class="cp-letters-header-printindex"><tr><th>Jump to: &nbsp; </th><td><a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-A"><b>A</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-C"><b>C</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-D"><b>D</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-F"><b>F</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-I"><b>I</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-M"><b>M</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-O"><b>O</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-P"><b>P</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-R"><b>R</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-S"><b>S</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-T"><b>T</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-U"><b>U</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-V"><b>V</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
</td></tr></table>
<table class="cp-entries-printindex" border="0">
<tr><td></td><th class="entries-header-printindex">Index Entry</th><td>&nbsp;</td><th class="sections-header-printindex"> Section</th></tr>
<tr><td colspan="4"> <hr></td></tr>
<tr><th id="Index_cp_letter-A">A</th><td></td><td></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-absolute-symlink">absolute symlink</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Terminology">Terminology</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-adopting-existing-files">adopting existing files</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Invoking-Stow">Invoking Stow</a></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="4"> <hr></td></tr>
<tr><th id="Index_cp_letter-C">C</th><td></td><td></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-configuration-files">configuration files</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Resource-Files">Resource Files</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-conflicts">conflicts</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Installing-Packages">Installing Packages</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-conflicts-1">conflicts</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Conflicts">Conflicts</a></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="4"> <hr></td></tr>
<tr><th id="Index_cp_letter-D">D</th><td></td><td></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-deferred-operation">deferred operation</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Conflicts">Conflicts</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-deferred-operation-1">deferred operation</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Mixing-Operations">Mixing Operations</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-deletion">deletion</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Deleting-Packages">Deleting Packages</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-directory-folding">directory folding</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Installing-Packages">Installing Packages</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-dotfiles">dotfiles</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Invoking-Stow">Invoking Stow</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-dry-run">dry run</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Invoking-Stow">Invoking Stow</a></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="4"> <hr></td></tr>
<tr><th id="Index_cp_letter-F">F</th><td></td><td></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-folding-trees">folding trees</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Installing-Packages">Installing Packages</a></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="4"> <hr></td></tr>
<tr><th id="Index_cp_letter-I">I</th><td></td><td></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-ignore-lists">ignore lists</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Ignore-Lists">Ignore Lists</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-ignore-lists-1">ignore lists</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Motivation-For-Ignore-Lists">Motivation For Ignore Lists</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-ignoring-files-and-directories">ignoring files and directories</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Ignore-Lists">Ignore Lists</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-installation">installation</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Installing-Packages">Installing Packages</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-installation-conflicts">installation conflicts</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Installing-Packages">Installing Packages</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-installation-image">installation image</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Terminology">Terminology</a></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="4"> <hr></td></tr>
<tr><th id="Index_cp_letter-M">M</th><td></td><td></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-maintenance">maintenance</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Target-Maintenance">Target Maintenance</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-mixing-operations">mixing operations</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Mixing-Operations">Mixing Operations</a></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="4"> <hr></td></tr>
<tr><th id="Index_cp_letter-O">O</th><td></td><td></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-ownership">ownership</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Installing-Packages">Installing Packages</a></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="4"> <hr></td></tr>
<tr><th id="Index_cp_letter-P">P</th><td></td><td></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-package">package</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Terminology">Terminology</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-package-directory">package directory</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Terminology">Terminology</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-package-name">package name</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Terminology">Terminology</a></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="4"> <hr></td></tr>
<tr><th id="Index_cp_letter-R">R</th><td></td><td></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-refolding-trees">refolding trees</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Deleting-Packages">Deleting Packages</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-relative-symlink">relative symlink</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Terminology">Terminology</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-resource-files">resource files</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Resource-Files">Resource Files</a></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="4"> <hr></td></tr>
<tr><th id="Index_cp_letter-S">S</th><td></td><td></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-simulated-run">simulated run</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Invoking-Stow">Invoking Stow</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-splitting-open-folded-trees">splitting open folded trees</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Installing-Packages">Installing Packages</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-stow-directory">stow directory</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Terminology">Terminology</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-symlink">symlink</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Terminology">Terminology</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-symlink-destination">symlink destination</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Terminology">Terminology</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-symlink-source">symlink source</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Terminology">Terminology</a></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="4"> <hr></td></tr>
<tr><th id="Index_cp_letter-T">T</th><td></td><td></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-target-directory">target directory</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Terminology">Terminology</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-tree-folding">tree folding</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Installing-Packages">Installing Packages</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-tree-refolding">tree refolding</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Deleting-Packages">Deleting Packages</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-tree-unfolding">tree unfolding</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Installing-Packages">Installing Packages</a></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-tree-unsplitting">tree unsplitting</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Installing-Packages">Installing Packages</a></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="4"> <hr></td></tr>
<tr><th id="Index_cp_letter-U">U</th><td></td><td></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-unfolding-trees">unfolding trees</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Installing-Packages">Installing Packages</a></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="4"> <hr></td></tr>
<tr><th id="Index_cp_letter-V">V</th><td></td><td></td></tr>
<tr><td></td><td class="printindex-index-entry"><a href="#index-verbosity-levels">verbosity levels</a>:</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td class="printindex-index-section"><a href="#Invoking-Stow">Invoking Stow</a></td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="4"> <hr></td></tr>
</table>
<table class="cp-letters-footer-printindex"><tr><th>Jump to: &nbsp; </th><td><a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-A"><b>A</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-C"><b>C</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-D"><b>D</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-F"><b>F</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-I"><b>I</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-M"><b>M</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-O"><b>O</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-P"><b>P</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-R"><b>R</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-S"><b>S</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-T"><b>T</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-U"><b>U</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
<a class="summary-letter-printindex" href="#Index_cp_letter-V"><b>V</b></a>
 &nbsp; 
</td></tr></table>
</div>

</div>
</div>
<div class="footnotes-segment">
<hr>
<h4 class="footnotes-heading">Footnotes</h4>

<h5 class="footnote-body-heading"><a id="FOOT1" href="#DOCF1">(1)</a></h5>
<p>As of Perl 4.036 and Emacs 19.22.  These are now
ancient releases but the example still holds valid.</p>
<h5 class="footnote-body-heading"><a id="FOOT2" href="#DOCF2">(2)</a></h5>
<p><a class="uref" href="http://brandon.invergo.net/news/2012-05-26-using-gnu-stow-to-manage-your-dotfiles.html">http://brandon.invergo.net/news/2012-05-26-using-gnu-stow-to-manage-your-dotfiles.html</a></p>
<h5 class="footnote-body-heading"><a id="FOOT3" href="#DOCF3">(3)</a></h5>
<p><a class="uref" href="http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info-stow/2011-12/msg00000.html">http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info-stow/2011-12/msg00000.html</a></p>
<h5 class="footnote-body-heading"><a id="FOOT4" href="#DOCF4">(4)</a></h5>
<p>Exact matching means the
regular expression is anchored at the beginning and end, in contrast
to unanchored regular expressions which will match a substring.</p>
<h5 class="footnote-body-heading"><a id="FOOT5" href="#DOCF5">(5)</a></h5>
<p>In this context, &ldquo;subpath&rdquo; means a contiguous
subset of path segments; e.g for the relative path
<samp class="file">one/two/three</samp>, there are six valid subpaths: <samp class="file">one</samp>,
<samp class="file">two</samp>, <samp class="file">three</samp>, <samp class="file">one/two</samp>, <samp class="file">two/three</samp>,
<samp class="file">one/two/three</samp>.</p>
<h5 class="footnote-body-heading"><a id="FOOT6" href="#DOCF6">(6)</a></h5>
<p>The &ldquo;basename&rdquo; is the name of the file or
directory itself, excluding any directory path prefix - as returned by
the <code class="command">basename</code> command.</p>
<h5 class="footnote-body-heading"><a id="FOOT7" href="#DOCF7">(7)</a></h5>
<p>This
approach was introduced in version 2 of GNU Stow.  Previously, the whole
target tree was scanned and stow directories were explicitly omitted.  This
became problematic when dealing with very large installations.  The only
situation where this is useful is if you accidentally delete a directory in
the package tree, leaving you with a whole bunch of dangling links.  Note that
you can enable the old approach with the <samp class="option">-p</samp> option.  Alternatively, you can
use the <samp class="option">--badlinks</samp> option get stow to search for dangling links in your target tree and remove the offenders manually.</p>
<h5 class="footnote-body-heading"><a id="FOOT8" href="#DOCF8">(8)</a></h5>
<p>As I write this, the current version of Emacs is 19.31.</p>
</div>



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