copying programs

[sandraider]

can copied programs work on other distros? for example copying gcc from ubuntu and putting it on debian, or copying it from debian and putting it on gentoo?

[Irithori]

Programs are seldom statically linked.
Instead they have dependencies on shared libraries.

The version of programs and libraries as well as specific patches vary from distribution to distribution.

So: If you copy everything a program needs in the right version and patch level to the right place, then yes.
The program will run.

But you have a high chance of killing several other programs, that now have to deal with unexpected libraries.

Then there is the problem of all the additional files and directorys: man pages, logfile dirs, etc.
You would need to copy these too, thus creating even more chaos on the destination system.

Also, package manager might overwrite your copy during the next update.

In short: Dont do it.

[sandraider]

thanks for the help, seems pretty useless if the package manager would overwrite it