How to trick debian into thinking a package is installed

[Steve Hsieh <steveh@eecs.umich.edu>]

Hi,

Can someone tell me how I can trick debian into thinking that a package is
installed?  Specifically, I have the real motif installed on my system. 
However, since this is (obviously) not a debian package, debian has no
idea that I have it.  And so if I try to install the xmcd package, it
refuses to install because lesstif isn't installed, but I can't install
lesstif without overwriting the real motif...  I guess I could also use
the --force-depends option in dpkg to force an install?

So my questions are;

1. what's the dirty way to modify the config files so debian thinks
lesstif is installed?

2. if I create my own binary .deb package with my motif binaries inside
it, how do I change the control file so it "provides" lesstif? 

On a side note, motif apps really ought to "require" a motif package, and
lesstiff should "provide" motif, as opposed to packages directly requiring
lesstif.

Steve



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