Re: What is the best way to manage 3rd party debs?

[Aniruddha <mailing_list@orange.nl>]

On Tue, 2008-08-12 at 19:39 -0300, martin f krafft wrote:
> also sprach Aniruddha <mailing_list@orange.nl> [2008.08.12.1931 -0300]:
> > If you don't mind I quote from your own book ^^
> > 
> > > > checkinstall is limited in what it can do. To be precise, the
> > > packages it creates can only install files, and checkinstall
> > > does not care where it installs them. You  can overwrite files
> > > in home directories with checkinstall, among other things.
> > 
> > I wonder what you recommend as the best way to install 3rd party
> > debs (such as cedega, nero, barry)? What is a safe way to install
> > them without risk of b0rking my system) ? 
> 
> How would they break the system? What do you need to protect from?
I don't know how the debs are packaged, for all I know they can wreck my
system. Or are are there safety features in place that prevents that
from happening?

I am trying to understand how to properly manage a Debian system. That's
why I go in such detail. f you happen to know material that I should
read in order to understand this aspect of Debian better I'm all ears.

> > Or are there things I should pay attention to when inspecting
> > a deb file? Are there telltale signs a deb file can cause trouble?
> > Thanks in advance.
> 
> Make sure to check the postinst/preinst/postrm/prerm hooks. Unpack
> the binary with dpkg-deb and make sure ./DEBIAN/* files are alright.
> 

I unpacked the deb and didn't find any /DEBIAN/* files. I guess It's
time to start reading the Debian developers manual ;)
-- 
Regards,


Aniruddha