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Maintaining local changes to packages



[ Please don't Cc: me when replying to my message on a mailing list. ]

Kai Henningsen:
> Whoever does something like the above, will know how to handle it.  

Not everyone is a born system administrator, however, so writing
documentation on how to do it right would be a good idea. I could
add something about it to the Linux System Administrators' Guide,
but a short addition to the Debian FAQ along the following lines
might be useful:

	How do I replace a Debian program or script with my own?
	
	dpkg checks that files marked by the package as
	configuration files have not been modified before
	it installs a new version. It does not check that
	programs or scripts have been modified. If you replace
	a program or script with your own version, the next
	upgrade of the package will overwrite your changes,
	and you'll have to re-do the changes.
	
	A simple way to do this is to install your own version
	of the program or script with an extension of ".local".
	For example, your own version of ls would be /bin/ls.local.
	Then replace the real version with a symbolic link to your
	own version:

		ln -sf ls /bin/ls.local

	A better, but slightly more complicated way, is to write
	your own package and use update-alternatives. [ someone
	fill in a short description of what update-alternatives
	does and why it works. ]

(Check, rewrite, add to FAQ, thanks.)

-- 
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Please don't Cc: me when replying to my message on a mailing list.


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