lndir mit Homebrew, MacPorts, Nix, zypper, dnf installieren

Projektlinks

• Homepage

Befehle und Aliase

• lndir

Projektgeschichte

The official manual describes lndir as a program that makes a shadow copy of a directory tree, where files are symbolic links back to the original source tree. X.Org build documentation for X11R6.8 recommended this shadow-tree workflow to keep source directories unmodified and support builds for different operating systems or architectures.

In the modular X.Org tree, lndir lives under util/lndir. X.Org's module guidelines describe the util module as a home for modular-tree build tools and legacy build tools from the monolithic tree, with lndir listed alongside utilities such as imake, gccmakedep, and makedepend.

Adoptionsgeschichte

lndir's adoption is mostly historical and specialist: it mattered to X11 and X.Org builders, distro maintainers, and developers who wanted out-of-tree builds before modern build systems made that workflow routine. Its standalone packaging in Homebrew and other systems preserves that utility without requiring the larger imake package.

The X.Org release directory shows lndir split out as an individual util tarball beginning in the modular release era, with releases from 1.0.1 in 2006 through 1.0.5 in 2024. The freedesktop cgit mirror shows the active upstream mirror and recent maintenance commits.

Wie es verwendet wird

A user creates an empty build directory and runs lndir against the source tree. The result is a parallel directory tree where source files are links and generated objects can live separately. Re-running lndir adds new links and checks existing ones, but deleted source files can leave stale symlinks that may need cleanlinks or a fresh shadow tree.

The tool has no project-level configuration or credentials. Its behavior is driven by command-line options such as -silent, -ignorelinks, and -withrevinfo.

Warum Paket-Nerds sich dafür interessieren

lndir is interesting precisely because it is small and archaic in a useful way. It is a fossil from the X11 build culture that still does one filesystem job cleanly, and package managers keep it available for scripts and users that remember the shadow-directory workflow.

For package nerds, lndir also illustrates the X.Org modularization story: pieces that once lived inside a monolithic source tree became tiny independently released tarballs with their own version streams.

Zeitleiste

• X11R6 era: lndir is documented as part of X source-tree build workflows.
• 2004: X11R6.8 documentation recommends lndir-based shadow build trees.
• 2006: X.Org publishes lndir 1.0.1 as an individual util release.
• 2024: X.Org publishes lndir 1.0.5.
• 2025: freedesktop cgit mirror shows recent maintenance commits for options and manual-page edits.

Related projects

• X.Org util modules such as imake, makedepend, gccmakedep, and util-macros belong to the same historical build-tool family.
• cleanlinks is commonly mentioned with lndir because it removes stale symbolic links in shadow trees.
• Modern out-of-tree build systems such as CMake and Meson solve related build-directory separation problems without symlink forests.

Quellen

• https://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/util/lndir
• https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/util/lndir
• https://www.x.org/NewModuleGuidelines/
• https://www.x.org/releases/individual/util/
• https://xorg.freedesktop.org/archive/X11R6.7.0/doc/lndir.1.html
• https://xorg.freedesktop.org/archive/X11R6.8.0/doc/BUILD3.html