Re: Library Dependencies
On Wed, Jan 16, 2002 at 10:51:39AM -0800, Jatin Golani wrote:
> I'm using Debian 2.2 and a few of the packages I want to install
> require libraries that are too new and are sometimes part of the
> unstable suite of Debian.
Applications from unstable will require libraries from unstable, that's
true.
> In similar situations i.e. when I have some libraries on my machine
> but which I'd installed as tar balls and don't show up in my package
> distribution, dpkg fails to install packages depending on these. Is
> there a way where I can work around this i.e. mixing tarball libraries
> and deb packages???
In my experience, by far the easiest way is not to try. Bear in mind
that, unless you've faithfully reproduced the way the Debian package is
constructed, packages that depend on it may not work with your version.
There's more to a library than just its version: especially in the case
of libraries like Qt that depend on other libraries, it's very easy to
introduce binary incompatibilities. Once you've compiled a new version
of a library yourself, I suggest you also compile everything that
depends on it yourself, and keep the lot in /usr/local or /opt or
wherever.
There is a tool called equivs that can create fake packages to satisfy
dependencies. Feel free to try it, but the responsibility for any
problems caused (especially during future upgrades) is yours.
> Also someone suggested that apt-get is a reliable tool to prevent
> library dependency issues. However, I'm having trouble using apt-get
> to install deb packages I already have downloaded. It seems apt-get
> requires the Packages file (even if I'm downloading directly fromthe
> net thru apt-get).
Correct. Look at apt-get's name - the "get" suggests package retrieval,
which is a large part of what apt-get does. Use 'dpkg -i' to install
single .debs.
It is possible, and even not that hard, to construct your own apt
repository if you need it. Look at dpkg-scanpackages, or perhaps
apt-move.
--
Colin Watson [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]
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