Re: Considering Debian
If the software exists in the Debian repository, you can always do an apt-get
source <package name> which will dowload the source, to which you can make
minor alterations as need be (like including debugging symbols), and then
build the package using the existing rules setup by the package maintainer.
Just a thought.
Sean
On Tuesday 27 February 2001 04:32, Rainer Mager wrote:
> David (and all),
>
> Thanks for the reply. The part about mixing hand built stuff with pacages
> in concerning as I do this quite often. The number of available packages is
> encouraging but, nonetheless, I know occasions will arise. I've had to
> build/install by hand X, glibc, postgres, the kernel, gcc, freeamp, and
> others because of needing bleeding edge versions that fix bugs or because,
> in debugging the current version, I needed a non-stripped binary.
> Although the automatic installation abilities of apt sound nice, I find
> that I usually want to actually download the, in my case, RPM so that I can
> use it on multiple machines. That is, I question the benefit of this for
> me.
>
> Anyway, I wall continue to explore this and, once again, thanks for the
> info.
>
> --Rainer
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: David B. Harris [mailto:dbarclay10@yahoo.ca]
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2001 5:27 PM
> > To: Rainer Mager
> > Cc: debian-user@lists.debian.org
> > Subject: Re: Considering Debian
> >
> >
> > To quote "Rainer Mager" <rmager@vgkk.com>,
> > # So, to make a long story short, how is the Debian package manager in
> > this
> > # regards? Do the same problems exist?
> >
> > Well, understand that there are two parts to the Debian packaging
> > system. 'apt', and 'dpkg'. 'dpkg' is roughly equivalent to function, if
> > not in features. 'apt' is a suite of utilities, and is generally what a
> > user would use. Debian has what are called repositories; there are local
> > mirrors in pretty much every country(I think ;). You can 'apt-get
> > install <package>', and it will resolve dependancies for you. It'll
> > install everything <package> needs, within limits. Sometimes two
> > packages conflict, and sometimes you'll need to manually over-ride it(so
> > that the other package gets removed). Anyways, it's pretty slick,
> > compared to 'rpm' :)
> >
> > # How easy is it to mix package installed
> > # pieces to pieces installed by hand?
> >
> > It's bad. Very bad. :) To make a long story short, just don't. If you
> > *must* install something manually, pass "--prefix=/opt
> > --sysconfdir=/opt/etc" or something to ./configure, to keep your own
> > compiled apps seperate from the packaging system. A *lot* of problems
> > that Debian users have is because they're mixing Sid or Woody(unstable
> > Debian branches) packages in a Potato(stable Debian, currently) system.
> > This causes numerous problems. A lot of problems are also caused by
> > people side-stepping the package management system. Basically, if
> > 'apt-get' and 'dpkg' don't want to install a package, you shouldn't.
> > Things will break, and break badly.
> >
> > Thank being said, there are some 6000 packages or so for Debian's Sid
> > branch. That's an awful lot of packages :) Most are pretty up-to-date,
> > too, except for a few notable exceptions like Mozilla(which is currently
> > stalled at M18). It's not too often that you'll have to do a manual
> > installation of an app. If the occasion arises, it's not too hard to
> > make your own .deb out of a source tarball, but I'll leave that exercise
> > up to you :)
> >
> > David Barclay Harris, Clan Barclay
> > Aut agere, aut mori. (Either action, or death.)
--
Silence is the only virtue you have left.
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