Re: apt-get, get-apt, synaptic, aptitude, spastic...
Dan Jacobson declaimed:
> After reading about the wonderful apt,dpkg,aptitude........ tools, I
> am, thoroughly confused. Thanks.
>
> I am a 31K modem user who connects for 20 minutes a day, with little
> bandwidth to spare.
>
> Two months ago I went to the nations capitol and got the 8 woody CDs
> of 5/14/02
>
> These I have happily on /etc/apt/sources.list.
>
> Apparently I must comment them out when connecting to the local mirror
> and doing a "update".
>
> OK, the "update" entails getting a megabyte file, therefore forget
> about doing it once a day. to bad there is no slim file of all
> current package numbers, etc... ok, dependencies may have changed,
> true, so need all that info.
>
> Maybe there is a announcement board where i can see what changed and
> if it is worth a "upgrade" of xyz package.
>
> There is a HOWTO for offline users, but it doesn't exactly cover my
> case.
>
> Anyways, I suppose I will be doing a lot of manipulation of
> sources.list, e.g. even when there is a new version on the mirror, I
> want to use an older version because it is on the CD...
>
> Anyways, great going fellas. Several different tools, some with
> shared records of what to install next time I pop in a cd, some not.
> which tool replaces another? which tools complements another? yes, i'm
> talking about apt apt-get syaptitc, dpkg, get-apt*, aptitude, bla
> bla... my head is spinning... which tools are incompatible i.e. will
> wreck system? *=joke.
> --
> http://jidanni.org/ Taiwan(04)25854780
Dan,
I've had a very similar experience. Aspirin is good. I'm on the wagon
myself, but have no problem recommending beer for someone who isn't.
After flirting heavily with some of that stuff, the tools I actually use
are the basic apt tools (apt-get, apt-cache) and dselect. Nothing that
wasn't installed as part of the core/base config.
Given your situation, I'd stick with dselect. It allows you the finest
control over what gets installed.
My understanding is that you want the CD records at the top. If two
sources have identical packages, the first source listed is used. You
obviously want to stick with the CDs as much as possible, so list them
first.
If you can't leave the computer on all night doing downloads (most
people with modems have a toll-free number to their ISP), forget any
source except the CD. That 1 MB packages listing is just the appetizer.
Next it'll try to download debs that you want to install, these will
typically be bigger than 1 MB. My updates vary from 5 - 60 MB depending
on how long it's been.
Note that you can browse the debian archives and look at the packages.
Mostly they'll have a version in the filename that you can compare with
what you have.
Good luck, and everyone else please jump in if I've been blowing smoke
anywhere in this.
PM
--
Paul Mackinney
paul@mackinney.net
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