Re: 1.0

[Dirk.Eddelbuettel@qed.econ.queensu.ca]

  Carlos Carvalho writes:
  Carlos>  Matthew Swift (swift@bu.edu) wrote on 15 November 1995 00:25:
[...]
  Matthew> For example, I've found it strongly desirable if not necessary to
  Matthew> mess with files in /usr/lib/emacs/site-lisp, /usr/lib/texmf,
  Matthew> /usr/doc, /boot, /dev, and of course /var and /etc.
  Carlos>  Keeping a distribution intact is an illusion. I've just installed
  Carlos> it and have already changed many things. A distribution is only
  Carlos> good for a start, particularly the base part. The packages are more
  Carlos> "upgradable" from the distribution.

Why don't you use the /usr/local part of the filesystem? 

Works perfectly well for local additions to TeX (/usr/local/lib/texmf/),
emacs (/usr/local/lib/emacs/site-lisp), info files (/usr/local/info with
referenes from /usr/info/dir), local configuration scripts in /usr/local/etc,
local src, includes,  libs and so on. 

Some changes have of course to be made to files in /etc or /boot --- but
that's why Debian packages normally declare these files as conffiles so that
they are not inadvertedly overwritten during upgrades the relevant package.

--
Dirk.Eddelbuettel@qed.econ.queensu.ca          http://qed.econ.queensu.ca/~edd