Usually any *nix distro has its package manager. Every distro has its build system. And the most of the times, it works.
But sometimes, you need to recompile this, rebuild that etc. because the binary package is old/featureless/nasty or because your machine is a sort of pile of unsupported hack-needed-for-working hardware (like my Benq S53 laptop).
But you don't want to make a safe, production-quality ready-for-repository package or setup procedure. Just build something for you. Something quick and dirty.
Probably just one or two programs to keep up to date. Probably only for your machine.

Ichigo is a small package manager based on sources (like the Gentoo's portage) written in BASH.
It has base features like plain dependances managing and remote and multiple package repositories handling, modern features like a use flag system, extension libraries handling, some unique features like automatic bleeding edge version support but, best of all, is a single damn file.
So, all you need to do is:

 Downloading Ichigo.
 Editing and configuring paths.
 Adding repository & --update (or copying some packages).
 Running.

Done. Something better than doing ./configure --same-tags && make && make install or changing every time your config file manually.
At least, it works for me© and my Slackware!

Make your Ichigo build. And if you want, trade it with friends (or just put it in your website).

Footnotes: obviously, if Ichigo and/or a package totally *destroy* your data/system/planet... is not my problem.