Re: A freak (but not so freak) idea: User space apt-get install

[Number Six <40302.nospam@comcast.net>]

On Wed, Mar 10, 2004 at 05:36:27PM -0600, Chad Walstrom wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 10, 2004 at 02:50:14PM -0800, Number Six wrote:
> > > ``dpkg --root=`pwd` --force-non-root -i *.deb''
> > 
> > In what ways is this different from "dpkg -x foo.deb ." ?  As
> > non-root, one would think no package state is modified.
> 
> The former allows you to keep a running package database with which you
> can remove, purge, and configure packages.

Help me crawl a bit, don't answer opaquely:
I've never gotten the hang of this "chroot" sort of thing.  So to test 
this, I added a user "joe", logged in as him, and ran:

$dpkg --root=`pwd` --force-not-root -i /path/to/tar_*.deb
dpkg: unable to access dpkg status area: No such file or directory

There's no "initial package database" structure there.

Please don't answer opaquely: what steps are a prerequisite to get 
started?

Thanks