dpkg --install versus dpkg --unpack
As some may know, I have been struggling for a long time trying to figure out
why I could no longer compile the 'sp' package.
Thinking that my problem might be out of date development libraries and
headers, I "refreshed" my system by hand, installing packages in
Debian-1.3.1/{base,lib,devel,utils} using 'dpkg --install <packagename>'.
I checked that the version of libc5-dev which was on my system (according
to dpkg -l) was indeed 5.4.33-3 as intended.
This didn't help. I got the error message that the compiler
couldn't find "ctype.h". Then I looked inside /usr/include/ctype.h, and
in there found a line which said "#include_next <ctype.h>". Such a
recursive include seemed wrong, so I unpacked libc5-dev_5.4.33-3.deb
into my /tmp directory, where I could have an independent look at the
files in it. Sure enough, the version of /usr/include/ctype.h that was
in the file in the tmp directory was sensible, with real constants, etc.
I then put libc5-dev onto my system using 'dpkg --unpack libc5-dev'.
This produced a new, correct version of ctype.h in the directory /usr/include,
(This same cycle of events then repeated itself with gettext.)
I can now compile sp, and will upload a fixed version shortly.
Here's my question: Is this a bug in libc5-dev, gettext, dpkg, or me:
am I the _only_ person in the world who didn't understand that using
dpkg --install does not overwrite files currently on one's file system?.
Or is there something mis-set in my filesystem?
Susan
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