Re: aptitude and source packages
Aptitude uses the same package tracking as apt-get, there is only a
little extra status with things like "automatic" markings. You can
therefore practically always alternate apt-get and aptitude, except for
losing the "automatic" markings, which I like very much. aptitude update
does what is necessary (you don't need an apt-get update as well).
However:
Source packages are not like binary packages, they are not even kept
track of. You don't have to be root, even, to download one. (If you
compile a source package to a binary one then install it, of course then
it will be kept track of.) kernel-source is different, it is actually a
"binary package" containing the source, I reckon because so many people
need kernel sources.
So,
apt-get build-dep gnucash
apt-get source gnucash
> > I'm not positive but I think all src code is unavailable in unstable version
> > of debian till it becomes 'stable'.. Seems like they could do that because
> > it is changing so often during the testing phase..
> >
>
> I'm using testing. And wouldn't the binaries change at least as often as the
> source? They might have to change when their own source changes, and might
> they also be affected when other software they depend on changes?
The source packages are definately available in unstable. It is however
possible that some "local mirrors" do not mirror all the source, I
suppose.
Binaries can even change "more often" than the source, when only the
debian-modifications change. (Source packages consist of three files,
the "upstream" tarball, the debian diffs, and a ".dsc" file describing
these two and their checksums.)
Hope this helped,
Hugo van der Merwe
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