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3. Invoking Stow

The syntax of the stow command is:

stow [options] package ...

The stow directory is assumed to be the current directory, and the target directory is assumed to be the parent of the current directory (so it is typical to execute stow from the directory `/usr/local/stow'). Each package is the name of a package in the stow directory (e.g., `perl'). By default, they are installed into the target directory (but they can be deleted instead using `-D').

The options are:

`-n'

`--no'

Do not perform any operations that modify the filesystem; merely show what would happen. Since no actual operations are performed, `stow -n' could report conflicts when none would actually take place (see section 6.3 Conflicts); but it won't fail to report conflicts that would take place.

`-c'

`--conflicts'

Do not exit immediately when a conflict is encountered. This option implies `-n', and is used to search for all conflicts that might arise from an actual Stow operation. As with `-n', however, false conflicts might be reported (see section 6.3 Conflicts).

`-d dir'

`--dir=dir'

Set the stow directory to dir instead of the current directory. This also has the effect of making the default target directory be the parent of dir.

`-t dir'

`--target=dir'

Set the target directory to dir instead of the parent of the stow directory.

`-v'

`--verbose[=n]'

Send verbose output to standard error describing what Stow is doing. Verbosity levels are 0, 1, 2, and 3; 0 is the default. Using `-v' or `--verbose' increases the verbosity by one; using `--verbose=n' sets it to n.

`-D'

`--delete'

Delete packages from the target directory rather than installing them.

`-R'

`--restow'

Restow packages (first unstow, then stow again). This is useful for pruning obsolete symlinks from the target tree after updating the software in a package.

`-V'

`--version'

Show Stow version number, and exit.

`-h'

`--help'

Show Stow command syntax, and exit.