Provided by: xstow_1.1.1-1_amd64 
NAME
XStow, replacement for GNU Stow
SYNOPSIS
xstow [OPTION ...] PACKAGE
DESCRIPTION
XStow is a replacement of GNU Stow (stow) written in C++. It supports all features of Stow with some
extensions.
XStow as GNU Stow, are programs for managing the installation of software packages, keeping them separate
(/usr/local/stow/emacs vs. /usr/local/stow/perl, for example) while making them appear to be installed in
the same place (/usr/local).
USAGE
xstow [OPTION ...] PACKAGE
Install a package
xstow foobar
Uninstall package
xstow -D foobar
OPTIONS
-dl -debug-level INT
Set's the debug level. An unsigned integer is accepted. The default value is 0.
-dm -debug-module [ALL|ARG|MAIN|TREE|CPPDIR]
Filter messages from a specific module.
-h -help
Shows a help screen.
-V -Version
Displays XStows version number and supported features.
-n -no
Do not actually make changes
-c -conflicts
Scan for conflicts, implies -n.
-s -simulate
Simulate installation. If this option is set permission problems will be ignored and -verbose will be
set to 1.
-d -dir DIR
Set stow dir to DIR. The default is the current directory.
-t -target DIR
Set target to DIR. The default is the parent of the stow directory.
-v -verbose [0|1|2|3]
Increase verboseness. Possible levels are 0,1,2 or 3. Simple setting -v or -verbose adds 1.
-D -delete
Unstow instead of stow. Deinstall the package.
-R -restow
The same like -delete followed by an reinstall.
-ap -absolute-path
Create symlinks with absolute path names. XStow can always handle packages which were installed with
this option. Installing one package with absolute path names and one without is no problem. Only the
creation of the symlinks will be affected by this option. This will cause that if one package is
installed with this option and one without, some of the symlinks of the first package, when they have
to be recreated will be recreated as relative ones. It is not good idea doing this, even XStow does
not have any problems with it. Warning: Breaks compatibility with Stow!
-tr -traversable LINKS
A list of links pointing to directories, that can be ignored. eg.: /usr/local/man is a link to
/usr/local/share/man Warning: Breaks compatibility with Stow!
-tkt -tr-keep-targets
Add the list of traversable links also to the keep targets list. This prevents the targets of the
links from being removed by XStow, which would cause that the traversable link becomes a dead link.
-tre -tr-auto PATTERN
Automatically add links which target matches this pattern.
-tre -tr-auto-regex REGEX
Automatically add links which target matches this pattern.
-kd -keep-dirs DIR
A list of directories, that should not be removed when a package will be removed. Warning: Breaks
compatibility with Stow!
-i -ignore PATTERN
Ignore files that matches this pattern.
-ire -ignore-regex REGEX
Ignore files that matches this expression.
-ni -nignore PATTERN
Ignore everything except file and directories matching this expression. eg: "systree/bintree
systree/headertree". For using nignore support fnmatch and configration file support has to be
enabled. For more details see xstow.ini(5).
-cp -copy PATTERN
Copy files or directories that matching this pattern.
-cre -copy-regex REGEX
Copy files or directories that matching this expression.
-ifd -i-file-in-dir DIR/FILE
Ignore this file in this directory. (Relative to the package dir.)
-cfd -c-file-in-dir DIR/FILE
Copy this file in this directory. (Relative to the package dir.)
-sd -stow-dirs DIR
A list of other stow dirs, that xstow is allowed change
-sda -sd-auto PATTERN
Automatically add directories to the list when matching this expression.
-sde -sd-auto-regex REGEX
Automatically add directories to the list when matching this expression.
-pd -protect-dirs DIR
A list of other dirs, that xstow is not allowed change
-pda -pd-auto PATTERN
Automatically add directories to the list when matching this expression.
-pde -pd-auto-regex REGEX
Automatically add directories to the list when matching this expression.
-pdt -pd-targets DIRS
A list of dirs, xstow is allowed to change.
-pta -pdt-add-traversable DIRS
Automatically add the targets of traversable links to the targets list.
-f -force
Skip conflicts if possible.
-F file
Read this configuration file too.
RETURN VALUES
0 On success.
1 On a missspelled call of xstow.
2 If an internal error occoured.
3 Installing the package failed of some reason. All the prechecking was ok, but the execution of the
exec list failed.
4 Installing a package failed.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
Since the debugging of the command line parsing can be hard if the debugging level is set by the command
line there are two evironment variables:
XSTOW_DEBUG_LEVEL
Same as the -debug-level option.
XSTOW_DEBUG_MODULE
Same as the -debug-module option.
Both values will be overwritten by the settings of the command line, after the command line was
parsed.
XSTOW_USE_CURSES
Same as the -no-curses option.
In later versions xstow tried detecting the terminal width and height, by default at the startup
routine. Even if this value is only used by the help screen. The result was:
$ TERM="" xstow
Error opening terminal: unknown.
The error message is reported by the ncurses lib. This can cause problems if you wan't start xstow as
a cron job. Now xstow tries detecting the terminal width not in it's startup, but when the help
screen is printed out. As an extra option you can set the environment variable XSTOW_USE_CURSES="0"
this will tell xstow not using curses anyway.
COFIGURATION FILES
The configuration file xstow.ini can be located in /etc and/or in the current stow directory. For
possible settings and syntax of this file see xstow.ini(5)
In this manpage there are some detailed informations of some special settings of XStow too. Please read
it!
EXAMPLES
Common Usage
As an example we install the ixlib library into the /usr/local/ tree.
tar xvfz ixlib-0.96.2.tar.gz
cd ixlib-0.96.2
./configure
make
So far, this was business as usual.
Note: by default the configure script prepares the application for being installed into /usr/local/. Have
a look at configure --help for more info.
Now installation is done by not installing ixlib directly into /usr/local/, we install it into
/usr/local/stow/ixlib-0.96.2/.
make install prefix=/usr/local/stow/ixlib-0.96.2/
The last point is creating all necessare symlinks so that ixlib's include files can be found by the
compiler in /usr/local/include. Therefore we are using xstow.
cd /usr/local/stow
xstow ixlib-0.96.2
And all symlinks will be created.
Installing XStow by using XStow
After calling the configure script and make, XStow is installed into the stow directory as I showed it in
the upper example.
make install prefix=/usr/local/stow/xstow-0.1.0
Then you switch to the stow directory and call XStow
cd /usr/local/stow
xstow-0.1.0/bin/xstow xstow-0.1.0
That is it.
COMPATIBLE
Link Creation
By default XStow is fully Stow compatible. The usage of some of the advanced features can cause that Stow
cannot handle the tree any more.
Command Line Options
XStow supports all command line options of Stow. Even it's format.
Eg.: xstow --verbose=2 foobar
BUGS
There are some nitty gritty cases, but no known bugs.
WHY
Stow requires Perl. But what's on systems where no Perl is available, or not yet installed? I tried
compiling Stow with perlcc, but it failed.
AUTHORS
XStow was written by Martin Oberzalek <kingleo@gmx.at>.
COPYING
XStow a replacement of GNU Stow written in C++.
Copyright (C) 2002-2021 by Martin Oberzalek <kingleo@gmx.at>
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU
General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even
the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or 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, write
to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
SEE ALSO
xstow.ini(5) merge-info(1) stow(1)
GNU Stow has an excelent documentation. Have a look at the manual. http://www.gnu.org/software/stow/
XStow 1.1.1 2025-04-11 XSTOW(1)