Re: outdated packages

[cjw44@cam.ac.uk (Colin Watson)]

masee@usa.net (Marshal Kar-Cheung Wong) wrote:
>>>>>> "Jerry" == Jerry J Jaskierny <jaskiern@fscked.org> writes:
>    > thanks, i'd already thought of that.  but i'd assume there has
>    > to be a more convenient way.  debian can't possibly be built on
>    > just the packages and dependencies it provides.

Why not? (It is.)

>You could also try dummy-package, or make-dummy-package, or something
>like that (I've forgotten the name, and amd too lazy to go look it
>up.) to create a dummy package that satisfies the dependencies that
>you need.  I never did get around to figuring out how to use it
>though.

Install the equivs package, then:

[cjw44@riva ~]$ mkdir test
[cjw44@riva ~]$ cd test
[cjw44@riva ~/test]$ equivs-control testpackage.control
[cjw44@riva ~/test]$ vi testpackage.control 
[cjw44@riva ~/test]$ cat testpackage.control 
Section: misc
Priority: optional
Standards-Version: 3.0.1

Package: testpackage
Version: 1.0
Maintainer: Colin Watson <cjw44@cam.ac.uk>
Architecture: all
Description: test package
 test package, long description
[cjw44@riva ~/test]$ equivs-build testpackage.control 
dh_testdir
touch build-stamp
dh_testdir
dh_testroot
dh_clean -k
# Add here commands to install the package into debian/tmp.
touch install-stamp
dh_testdir
dh_testroot
dh_installdocs
dh_installchangelogs
dh_compress
dh_fixperms
dh_installdeb
dh_gencontrol
dh_md5sums
dh_builddeb
dpkg-deb: building package `testpackage' in
`../testpackage_1.0_all.deb'.

The package has been created.
Attention, the package has been created in the current directory,
not in ".." as indicated by the message above!
[cjw44@riva ~/test]$ ls
equivs  testpackage.control  testpackage_1.0_all.deb

It's very easy. You can tweak the fields in the control file as much as
you like; Provides: might be the most likely to be useful in an
equivs-built package.

Note the warning in the equivs-build(1) man page, though:

       Please note that this is a crude hack and if thoughtlessly
       used might possibly do damage to your packaging system.
       And please note as well that using it is not the
       recommended way of dealing with broken dependencies.
       Better file a bug report instead.

-- 
Colin Watson                                           [cjw44@cam.ac.uk]