Paludis/Importare

One of the big powers of Paludis is to install packages which don't have an ebuild. This is done using the tool importare.

Adding the 'installed_unpackaged' repository
Paludis needs to know where to store data for unpackaged packages. Configure paludis by adding a new repository:

Add its directory:

Installing an unpackaged package
So let's just assume you found this cool application, but unfortunately it's not used a lot and noone can write you an ebuild. Don't worry. Forget about writing an ebuild for every package. You'll just install the package into a temporary directory and then install the image.

Now, the way this is done will differ a lot per package, especially if it's not based on autotools. If it is indeed not based on autotools, try and accomplish the same. The final goal is to install all binaries and data to an image directory. Ask help in the package's community if needed.

In this example, it is assumed the package is based on autotools. Let's start off with the usual sequence, with an added touch:

Now, the last line is important. DESTDIR="/tmp/image" tells the Makefile to install to (make sure this path exists) instead of the default. This way, you get an isolated installation of your package. Now comes importare's magic:

We just told importare to install the image as a new package "foofox" as version 3.24_beta6. Importare will merge this directory with your actual root, and that's it. Your unpackaged package has now been installed, without the help of an ebuild. If a package becomes available for this package later, then paludis will uninstall this unpackaged package for you as soon as you install the ebuild (assuming it has the same name).