gnu-19991025.tar.gz experiences and questions

[Paul.Emsley@chem.gla.ac.uk]

	Hi,

	I untarred the gnu-19991025.tar.gz.  All worked smoothly.
      Manic grins.  Clean unmounts (hooray!)

	As a RedHat user I am completely unfamiliar with .debs.  Where 
      can I read about how to install and interrogate them?

	I thought I'd add emacs, gcc, vim and tcsh, since gnu-19991025
      seems to be without them.  I downloaded stuff from:
ftp://sunsite.doc.ic.ac.uk/Mirrors/ftp.debian.org/pub/debian/dists/sid/main/binary-hurd-i386/base/
	
	Eeek!  tripped by dependences.  How should I have found out
      about the various dependences?  How can I know what debs are
      already installed? 

	tcsh_6.08.01-2.2.deb installed ok, but does nothing: 

hurd:/# tcsh
exit
hurd:/#

	Do I distantly recall that this issue had been addressed?
       Shall I try to debug it?  Where do the diffs go?  Does it tell
      me somewhere in the .deb file?

	There are hundreds of .debs in the above directories.  Where
      did they all come from?  I was under the impression that they
      were (HURD i386) binaries.  Has Marcus been mind-bogglingly
      busy?

	Swap question: 
	RedHat system has the following /etc/fstab entries
/dev/hda4	/gnu   # mount the gnu/hurd partition under gnu/linux
/dev/hda3	swap   # extra fields removed for clarity

	but when I try to add (the same) swap partition in the
      gnu/hurd /etc/fstab like so:

/dev/hd0s4	/
/dev/hd0s3	swap 

	I get the message "No such file" (or partition).  Sorry, I
      forget the exact message - it flicked by... 

	FAQ pointers happily accepted...

	Thanks (this has all been much easier than last time), 

	Paul.