Re: Packages - what's the best way?
On Mon, 15 Nov 2010 14:22:13 +1100, Rob Hurle wrote:
> I'm quite new to debian and I'm getting my head around dpkg, apt-get,
> aptitude and synaptic. Does anyone have advice on the best way to
> handle a .deb package? Can I make up my own repository of .deb packages
> and point apt-get at that to install packages? I've installed one or
> two small things (gcc and gnu make) using dpkg, but I wondered if there
> was a better way to do this. I've just downloaded opera and it comes in
> a .deb package, so this is my next task. apt or dpkg - or even
> synaptic?
This is just my POW (and I'm quite new to Debian deb packaging system)
but here it goes :-)
apt-get / aptitude / synaptic (GUI based interface) are "repository"
based package managers, meaning they will resolve any dependency issue
you can encounter when installing packages form repos.
Repositories can be online based (ftp.debian.org) or local directory
based (you can have your own repository in your lan).
"dpkg" is a package manager, you can use it for installing standalone
packages (I did so for my UPS monitoring program that was only available
as a single ".deb" package from manufacturer's site).
In brief: I always try to get packages from Debian repositories (whenever
possible/available) and so using apt-get or synaptic. If not there, you
can download from upstream and install them locally... hoping not to get
a conflict, library missing or dependency error :-P
Recommended for reading:
Chapter 2. Debian package management
http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch02.en.html
As for Opera:
http://wiki.debian.org/Opera
The last time I installed Opera was under openSUSE, but it was installed
without a glitch (yes, I remember I had to get the package directly from
Opera site)
Greetings,
--
Camaleón
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