[ Here goes my 2nd try - 2.0.31 has froze twice on me today, arrgh. ] Mark Eichin <eichin@cygnus.com> writes: > I don't think I'll find any src-orig-*.deb files on prep. My point > was that I can take the .tar.gz files that I *do* find everywhere and > just use them, without having to go through more [potentially > error-prone] steps to repackage them first. A src-orig-*.deb file is a simple wrapper for the tarballs + any extra information you want to add to the description. It would be possible to wrap one around a tarball with a single command. There would be no possibilities for errors. > > OK - I have definitely gotten the message that dpkg is "hands off" when > > it comes to using for purposes other than what it was originally > > Hmm. I guess this is a little stronger message than I was intending, > but it's probably close enough :-) Since you put it that way, yeah, > dpkg is *not* a general purpose unix-style utility. How's this for a > poor analogy - sed is a wrench, awk is a hammer, perl is vicegrips > (you know, "the wrong tool for every job"...) dpkg is more like, lets > see, brake-caliper-retractors? (a precision tool that is really only > useful for one thing, but it's the tool you *have* to have for that > job...) I'm quite convince that you won't find a tool that *does* the > same thing that dpkg does -- because basically dpkg "handles a ton of > details for debian". You might (I hope), find a tool that does a more > generic form of what you're looking for (once you define it a little > more generically.) I was hoping dpkg would develop into more of a standard system service where debian-specific functionality would just be additional modules. Unfortunately, my hopes have been dashed. I now realize that dpkg has only ever aspired to be "throw away code", so I should look elsewhere for a more generalized "service". I understand the FSF is developing a packaging system for the Hurd - that might be a more appropriate choice as it is likely to be designed more as an OS service. > Now you *might* want to look at the work of Brian Bartholomew, with > pgfs and host-gen (there was an article by him about them in the last > linux journal, or *maybe* the one before that...) not because they do > anything like what you want, but because they do interesting things > involving databases of pathnames (which, when it comes down to it, is > the generic issue here, I think) and using more general purpose > tools... so you might find more useful widgets there. I am familiar with Brian's work - I batted quite a few emails back and forth talking about some pretty abstract stuff (about a year and half ago). Cheers, - Jim
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