Re: .deb packages from outside debian/dists/ ?

[Andreas Hetzmannseder <hetzmann@netway.at>]

On Sun, Feb 10, 2002 at 12:04:01AM -0500, Ben Collins wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 09, 2002 at 08:31:50PM -0800, Paul E Condon wrote:
> > I want to install some software that I downloaded as a .deb file,
> > but it did not come from a Debian mirror. Instead it came from a ftp
> > download from a developer's web site. The only way I have ever used
> > dselect, dpkg, or apt-get have been to get stuff from a Debian
> > mirror and then unpack and install it. This happened all
> > automatically. Now I have a file in my home directory. Where do I
> > put it? What commands and options do I use?
> 
> dpkg -i blah.deb
> [...]

If you decided to uninstall 'blah.deb', wouldn't you run into trouble?

One may create a 'Packages' file for some extra deb-package:

    localhost:~# cd /usr/local
    localhost:/usr/local# mkdir debs
    localhost:/usr/local# cd debs
    localhost:/usr/local/debs# mkdir package_name
    localhost:/usr/local/debs# cp path/to/debfile package_name
    localhost:/usr/local/debs# dpkg-scanpackages package_name\
                                              some_empty_override_file\
                                              debs/ > Packages

Additional entry in /etc/apt/sources.list:

    deb file:/usr/local debs/

This way installing or uninstalling may be more properly achieved.

At least I have been doing it this way, and it has been working fine.
Any comments?

Kind regards,
Andreas.