How to install on Linux without root access?

#1

Note: There are a couple of threads on GitHub and sourceforge with the same question, but none of them has a functional solution.

I’m looking for a good cross-platform editor so I can use the same workflow everywhere, and Atom does seem like a good editor, from trying it out on Windows, but a fundamental requirement for it to be more useful to me than my current system of using three different text editors is that I need to be able to install it on linux systems at work that I don’t, and will not, have root access to. All of the linux install methods mentioned on this site require using sudo. Is there any way to install this that doesn’t require root? (eg. local install to my home directory instead of root, compiled binary for standard linux distros (RHEL Server 6.4, in this case), etc.)

Any advice would be appreciated.

#2


Is this of any help? The last answer tells you to consider an rpm package as a sort of tar archive and then untar it into your local home directory,

You might also consider rebuilding from source, although a bit time-consuming if you need to do it on every workstation…

#3

Thanks frabert,
I don’t expect the second one to work, since I already tried something similar to that. If I don’t come up with a simpler answer I might try compiling from source sometime when I’ve got the time.

#4

Just curious, what kind of problems did you run into when you tried that?

#5

I actually tried the specific instructions on that website to make sure. It successfully made directories relative to the directory I ran it in and installed files in them, but when I try to run it, it looks for files in /usr and /lib64 (absolute paths, not relative) that aren’t there, so it won’t run.

#6

Is the binary the thing looking for files there? If so, maybe one could make a patched version that can accept arbitrary search paths and bundle it in a rpm package… Just speculating, though.

#7

Yes, the atom program (the binary) is what is looking for files there. I’m honestly kind of surprised that this doesn’t come up all the time. A lot of people work on systems they don’t have root on.

#8

On Windows, for instance, Atom automatically installs in a local directory, not in the main programs’ folder. I am surprised too. Well maybe it is so because of windows apps to make a custom installer for everything, while linux software is primarily deployed by means of source code packages or automated package managers.