Are there any advantages of building software from source over installing them from a package manager?

I would like to know 开发者_Go百科the difference between the 2 methods in terms of how dependencies are handled, ease of use and configurability.

If you install from source, you lose ease of use (you have to follow a procedure yourself instead of clicking a button to install) and you have to resolve your own dependencies in many cases, whereas a package manager would do this for you in most cases. However, you gain a lot of configurability (pick and choose versions, where to install, even modify source).

Also, there's a lot of stuff out there that you can only get if you install from source, because packages haven't been made (or kept up to date), especially if you use one of the less popular package managers.

What about building software from source with the help of a package manager? Think gentoo's emerge. You see, the two choices you present are not necessarily mutually exclusive alternatives.