Re: gs 3.53 and up

["Susan G. Kleinmann" <sgk@sgk.tiac.net>]

Hi Ervin --

You said:
> I have had a problem using ghostscript verisons 3.53 up through 4.00
> in the standard distributions.  
...
> I have solved the problem personally by downloading gs 4.00 and 
> compiling it with no gcc optimizations.  However, I have to install 
> it in /usr/local/ because I didn't have a functioning debianized version.  
> This means I either have to keep a broken gs 3.x or working gs 2.x 
> installed in /usr/bin or I have to deal with dependency problems because 
> dpkg doesn't know I have gs installed in /usr/local.
> 

I think dpkg has a mechanism for getting around this, but I've never
tried it, so beware of the following advice.

The program I think you need is called dpkg-divert.
Documentation is provided by invoking it with the --help option, and also
in the file /usr/doc/dpkg/programmer.html/ch-diversions.html (I'm referring
to dpkg version 1.3.5).  The 1.2 versions of dpkg had a file called 
/usr/doc/dpkg/diversions.text.

Good luck,
Susan Kleinmann