Re: apt-get install 'cept need to ignore dependencies
On Wed, Feb 14, 2007 at 04:38:04PM -0500, Jim Popovitch wrote:
> On Thu, 2007-02-15 at 08:16 +1100, Craig Sanders wrote:
> > that is *ALWAYS* a better thing to do on a debian system than to compile
> > something and just run "make install".
>
> Actually, at least for me, "make install" (if you know what you are
> doing) is better, at least for what I am doing (high-volume,
> high-performance Sendmail system, w/ libmilter for dk-filter, tons of
> queues, different queue types, etc.).
i still think you'd be better off building a package rather than 'make
install'. after all, why bother running debian if you're going to discard
one of the things that makes it great (package management)?
having had to clean up numerous systems over the years which had been
mismanaged by installing important stuff all over the place, including
in user home directories, i really hate unpackaged stuff. it's OK
for personal tools that you might use as an end user on your own
files (e.g. in ~/bin/) but never for system tools/daemons. once you
leave the packaging system behind, you have to start keeping copious
notes on exactly where each system diverges from the package-managed
distro....you can't just query the package system to find out what's
installed.
OTOH, it's your system. do what you want with it. this is just my POV.
YMMV.
> Debian's Sendmail packages have too many scripts that do too many
> strange things, and assume the usage is very "generic". One of the
> strange things those scripts do is is rebuilding sendmail.cf at
> startup, IIRC.
so don't use them. once you've got it installed and configured, they
don't matter. and you can hack /etc/init.d/sendmail to make it work as
you want if it does things you don't like....even if you accidentally
"upgrade" to a debian package of sendmail it wont overwrite your conf
files (incl. the init.d script) unless you tell it to.
of course, i think that using sendmail in this era where there are
vastly better alternatives around - including exim and especially
postfix - is an enormous mistake. back in the old days it was about
the best thing around. these days, it's one of the worst. and
"high-performance sendmail" is a contradiction in terms :-).
> I worked around this situation by modifying "sendmail"
> in /var/lib/dpkg/status:
>
> Package: sendmail
> Status: install ok installed
> Priority: extra
> Section: mail
> Installed-Size: 136
> Maintainer: Jim Popovitch <jimpop@yahoo.com>
> Architecture: i386
> Source: jimpop
> Version: 8.14.0
> Provides: mail-transport-agent
> Depends: netbase, libc6 (>= 2.3.2.ds1-4), libgcc1 (>= 1:3.4.1-3)
> Description: Custom Sendmail
> Used for email
>
> I also had to touch /var/lib/dpkg/info/sendmail.list (to reduce
> dselect/apt-update errors about missing package files list).
yep, that works. it's essentially what equivs does....but if you're
comfortable with hand-hacking the status file then it's good. most
people aren't.
BTW, you want to flag that as "hold" so that it doesn't get upgraded
next time you run "apt-get dist-upgrade".
i.e.
Status: hold ok installed
and it doesn't really need a "Depends:" line...but it doesn't hurt to
have it.
craig
--
craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au>
Currently listening to: Sugar - Waterfront
It is convenient that there be gods, and, as it is convenient, let us
believe there are.
-- Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid)
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