Assume I have ssh access to some Ubuntu server as user and I need some not system tools to be installed for convenience (mc, rtorrent, mcedit). I do not want to bother admins for these small programs.
Is there a way to install them (make them run) without using something like sudo apt-get install?
Compile and install into ~/bin (and edit your .bashrc to set the PATH to include it). libraries can similarly be compiled and installed into ~/lib (set LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to it), and development headers can be installed into e.g. ~/includes.
Depending on the specific details of the programs you want to install and the libraries they depend upon, you can download the .deb files and use 'dpkg-deb -x' to extract them underneath your home directory. You will then have a lot of "fun" setting the PATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, and other variables. The more complex the program or app you're installing the more fun you'll be up for :)
You will, of course, not be able to install setuid binaries this way - they'll install but (since you don't have permission to chown them to root or set the setuid bit on them) they'll just be normal binaries owned by you.
Similarly, daemons and system services that expect to be running as a certain UID or have the ability to change uid, or expect files to be in /etc rather ~/etc and so on aren't likely to work well, if at all.
Most sysadmins would consider mc and mcedit to be "mostly harmless", innocuous programs.
Very few, however, would consider installing a torrent client to be harmless, especially if they have to pay for bandwidth or end up being legally liable. Most sysadmins would probably not be entirely happy for end-users to be installing such software without permission. They may say "sure, go ahead, knock yourself out" or they may not...but you should ask about anything that may cause problems for the owners/administrators of the machine.
LD_LIBRARY_PATH is an evil hack. Does this apply here as well, or have I misunderstood?
– Will Vousden
Feb 10 '16 at 13:59
dpkg-deb -x to a local dir). Worked like a charm. I did not have to do any LD_LIBRARY_PATH hacks. Even if I have to, I would do it in the same command line so as not to affect the global settings (for example $ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/usr1/zoom/opt/zoom:/home/usr1/zoom/opt/zoom/zoom ZoomLauncher).
– Antony
Sep 14 at 13:29
You need to compile these from source. It should just be a matter of
apt-get source PACKAGE
./configure --prefix=$HOME/myapps
make
make install
The binary would then be located in ~/myapps/bin. So, add export PATH="$HOME/myapps/bin:$PATH" to your .bashrc file and reload the .bashrc file with source ~/.bashrc. Of course, this assumes that gcc is installed on the system.
You can use JuNest, which creates a small Linux container in user's directory, where you can install any packages.
I'm having the same problem as you. I haven't tried it yet but it seems that Linuxbrew can be handy on this issue.
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