*** Reply to message from Paul
If I install a program from a tar (compile,make,install) or an rpm with rpm -i, how can I let YaST know that the programs are installed?
you can run /sbin/SuSEconfig after you install everything by hand... it updates the databases and links that Suse looks at for finding your program . Only problem now is to get everyone to FINALLY decide where these "user" installed programs should go... so they can have the right links to the libraries and anything else they may need to actually run .... /sbin/SuSEconfig is what YAST runs after each update , install of new software or install of rpm package using yast or YAST ( never quite certain which of those that ought to be...) Now if you want to get really crazy add re-carpet to the mix ( you need to run the /sbin/SuSEconfig command when you finish installing anything w / red-carpet, in order to keep the database strait.. -- j -- nemo me impune lacessit