Re: dselect ignorance
On Fri, 2002-08-23 at 10:52, Thomas H. George,,, wrote:
> Otherwise, my question is this: If I find an xxx.deb package at some
> site other than the debian stable distribution and wish to use it how
> should I proceed? Download it? Put it where? Simply run dpkg install
> xxx.deb? Edit sources.list and use apt-get install xxx.deb? Or is
> dselect the preferred method to best manage dependencies? If dselect is
> best, do I somehow bypass the many location questions?
The basic solution is: dpkg -i <package file>. That'll install the
package completely, provided that all the dependancies have been worked
out beforehand. This does not however get you the ability to
automatically install this package and its dependancies as needed. Also,
if the package ever gets uninstalled, you'll have to find the package
file again to reinstall it. This to me works out to be fairly
inconvienient, especially because I work on a system with several
administrators, all of whom would like to install packages.
Instead, I use a local repository, with an additional apt source. To
follow my approach:
1) Create a directory where you'll keep your package files. I use
/usr/local/debian (it just seems to make sense).
2) Place in that directory, this script:
http://rifetech.com/~atrus/refresh
3) Place any package you want in that directory.
4) Finally (and again any time you add or remove files from this
directory), run ./refresh.
In /etc/apt/sources.list, add a line for your local repository, like
this:
deb file:///usr/local/debian ./
Update your package lists, and any package files in that directory can
be installed using standard apt-get, dselect, aptitude, or any other
debian front-end.
Things I have yet to do to improve this:
1) Source packages. Any idea how I can build Source package capability
into my script?
2) Warnings when files in the local repository have been surpassed in
version by versions from other apt sources. Suggestions?
--
Jeremy Nickurak -= atrus@rifetech.com =-
Reply to: