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6.2 Multiple stow directories

If there are two or more system administrators who wish to maintain software separately, or if there is any other reason to want two or more stow directories, it can be done by creating a file named `.stow' in each stow directory. The presence of `/usr/local/foo/.stow' informs Stow that, though `foo' is not the current stow directory, and though it is a subdirectory of the target directory, nevertheless it is a stow directory and as such Stow doesn't "own" anything in it (see section 4. Installing packages). This will protect the contents of `foo' from a `stow -D', for instance.

When multiple stow directories share a target tree, the effectiveness of Stow is reduced. If a tree-folding symlink is encountered and needs to be split open during an installation, but the symlink points into the wrong stow directory, Stow will report a conflict rather than split open the tree (because it doesn't consider itself to own the symlink, and thus cannot remove it).