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Re: Installing debs in ~user/ or /usr/local?



On Sat, May 05, 2001 at 10:00:14PM +0200, Egon Willighagen wrote:

> maybe it is a stupid question, but can debian packages be installed in other 
> places than / ?
> 
> I know that when the package is compiled the Makefile has a $DESTDIR
> attribute, but is this preserved in the deb package?
> 
> This issue came up when i tried to convince someone that debian packages
> are a good addition to tar.gz for distribution... but one argument he gave, 
> was the question if non-root users could install debian packages?
> 
> Is this possible?

Debian packages require root privileges for installation.  While you could
unpack a .deb in your home directory and use the files in it, you would lose
most of the advantages of using a packaging system (file tracking,
autoconfiguration, etc.).  If you use it this way, a .deb is no better than a
.tar with binaries in it.

I suppose you could install most simple .debs in a chroot environment where you
owned everything, but many packages (notably those which run daemons, cron
jobs, etc.) expect to be able to perform tasks as root.

That said, .debs _are_ a good addition to .tar.gz for distribution.  This is
what Debian developers (in general) do: create and distribute .debs.

-- 
 - mdz



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