Prefix
Gentoo Prefix enables the power of Gentoo and Portage on other distributions and/or operating systems (Microsoft Windows via Cygwin, Android via Termux, etc.).
Prefix can be thought of as being like an app store, along the lines of Homebrew, Snap, or Flatpak - which opens all the packages offered in Gentoo to systems that do not have such functionality.
Whenever a piece of software needs to be compiled on a binary distribution, why download and compile source tarballs and dependencies, only to clutter the root filesystem with files that don't always have an easy way to be uninstalled ? Let Gentoo Prefix handle downloading, dependency resolution, configuration, compiling, installation, updates, removal, and more.
Be it because there is no binary installation option available, or because a particular compile time option is needed - use Gentoo Prefix to easily compile and install the software safely, as a package!
Gentoo prefix grants access to the huge amount of up-to-date software from the Gentoo ebuild repository, as well as from GURU, and from any other publicly accessible repository. It brings with it the great flexibility of the USE flag system, with easy installation, updates, and removal of packages.
Gentoo Prefix is installed onto a system as a third party piece of software, and will work with with most Linux, and some Unix(like), systems.
While the Gentoo Linux distribution is traditionally used to install a Linux kernel with a boot loader, like most other Linux distributions, Prefix is a way of installing a Gentoo system in a non-standard location, designated by a 'prefix', on a preexisting system.
Prefix is tested on many GNU/Linux distributions, and should work on most. Of course, Prefix can also be used on a Gentoo installation.
See the Prefix project page for more information.
Examples of when to use Prefix
- If using a campus server with an old version of Linux and only have limited access, then Prefix would give the user the ability to run newer software for their needs.
- The ability to use Linux programs inside operating systems such as macOS and Solaris.
See also
- Portage — the official package manager and distribution system for Gentoo.
- Prefix/CJK - use CJK characters in Prefix, independently of the host system.
- Chroot - operating system in a folder, root required
Gentoo prefix on different systems
- Gentoo in WSL — documents the process and some configuration tips to get Gentoo running on WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) - to effectively run Gentoo under Windows.
- Prefix/Cygwin — instructions for any poor soul attempting to bootstrap Gentoo Prefix on a Microsoft Windows system via Cygwin.
- Prefix/Darwin — brings the power of Gentoo to Darwin (macOS/OS X) based systems, similar to pkgsrc, macports, and homebrew.
- Prefix/NetBSD — work in progress; page simply contains notes about efforts to get it up and running.
- Project:Android