Installing chkrootkit and gcc question

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1

I was trying to install chkrootkit on CentOS 5.1 and was having trouble but found the info to get it installed.

My question is now that I have a compiler installed is it bad to just leave it there? Should I uninstall it? If so how?

Read on to see why I now have a compiler :slight_smile:

To install chkrootkit I got the .gz transferred and unpacked.

I then tried running make:

make sense

and got:
-bash: make: command not found

So I installed make using yum.
Successful.

I then tried:

make sense

and got:
gcc -DHAVE_LASTLOG_H -o chklastlog chklastlog.c
make: gcc: Command not found
make: *** [chklastlog] Error 127

Was lost then realized I needed to install the compiler so I installed gcc with yum.

I then tried:

make sense

And chkrootkit installed!

Ran it and all seems ok. Yea :slight_smile:

2

So what is the question ?

3

> My question is now that I have a compiler installed is it bad to just leave it there? Should I uninstall it? If so how?

It’s a convenience versus security thing.

If you don’t think you need a compiler, some might suggest removing it so you aren’t making it simpler for someone who might break in to compile anything they might want to run on your system.

If you think you may want the compiler later, you just have to weigh the benefit of having ready access to a compiler versus making it a pain for intruders to have their way with your system :slight_smile:

As a whole, I tend to vote for removing unnecessary packages, you just have to decide what’s unnecessary :wink:

To remove a package, just type "rpm -e PACKAGENAME".
-Eric

4

Thanks for the info Eric!

Scott - I left all the info below my question to help other newbies trying to install chkrootkit that run into the same errors.