Posted inInformation Technology

How to install Jed on Arch Linux

seasoned_geek by seasoned_geek
Lenovo M93p ThinkCentre front

Most Linux distros have Jed in their repos. You should install Jed whenever you set up a new Linux system. Many Linux utilities that launch a terminal based editor will default to Jed if they find it. If not they usually stick you with icky-nasty vi.

The “approved” way rather sucks. Arch based distros like Manjaro provide pamac. Arch wants everyone to do everything by themselves. First you have to find the package you want via a Web browser.

AUR package search

You have to be very careful with AUR packages. These aren’t well vetted and someone could have uploaded a malicious tweak to a trusted package. Just because you are building a package from source doesn’t mean it is safe.

Put your packages all in one place

We already installed build-devel setting up the VM. Just need to install git now.

install git
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/jed.git
clone jed
cd jed
makepkg -si
building package

If you are curious, the s option resolves and installs dependencies. The i option installs the package after successful build. After the build chews for a while and you see all kinds of messages about fakeroot and /usr/bin/install you will finally be prompted for your password.

password prompt for install

The package may have built and installed itself in a fakeroot environment, but it won’t actually install without a valid sudo password. After that Jed is yours.

jed editing little C program

Roland Hughes started his IT career in the early 1980s. He quickly became a consultant and president of Logikal Solutions, a software consulting firm specializing in OpenVMS application and C++/Qt touchscreen/embedded Linux development. Early in his career he became involved in what is now called cross platform development. Given the dearth of useful books on the subject he ventured into the world of professional author in 1995 writing the first of the "Zinc It!" book series for John Gordon Burke Publisher, Inc.

A decade later he released a massive (nearly 800 pages) tome "The Minimum You Need to Know to Be an OpenVMS Application Developer" which tried to encapsulate the essential skills gained over what was nearly a 20 year career at that point. From there "The Minimum You Need to Know" book series was born.

Three years later he wrote his first novel "Infinite Exposure" which got much notice from people involved in the banking and financial security worlds. Some of the attacks predicted in that book have since come to pass. While it was not originally intended to be a trilogy, it became the first book of "The Earth That Was" trilogy:
Infinite Exposure
Lesedi - The Greatest Lie Ever Told
John Smith - Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars

When he is not consulting Roland Hughes posts about technology and sometimes politics on his blog. He also has regularly scheduled Sunday posts appearing on the Interesting Authors blog.