Re: 'usual' problem with diff paths in Packages vs. hdd layout
Hello,
On 1 Jun 1998, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
> Peter> The problem is that my disk layout is non-standard, eg. there are no
> Peter> "unstable" or "frozen" links to "hamm". This is fairly valid,
>
> Actully, this is a moot point.
Hmm. I can accept that but then it should be pointed out exatly, with the
exact expected layout to help me to set it by hand.
> Peter> and apt happily handles it,
>
> ? It seems to me, that apt does not handle it.
Except the actual installation it accepts any directory layout, finds
Package files, updates its indices etc.
> Peter> but it try to use the (semi-relative) paths found in the file
> Peter> called Packages,
>
> Which is the only sane way to do it, unless one makes
> assumptions about where the packages files are located. Do you
> disagree?
I am not quite sure about what assumptions do you mean. Package files
contain information of their own subtree, for instance the one in
.../contrib. They never reference any file outside that tree as far as I
see. It seems to be logical not to contain or reference any paths outside
that subtree, thus making all dir reference relative to the actual base
dir.
I mean, from the Filename: field only the last two part is logical and
stable no matter where the directory resides: the path of the category
(like "text/") and the filename itself ("textfoo_1.0.deb"). I see no
reason to use backref directories since apt (as well as other "manual"
type installs) ask for the exact location of the base dirs, thus making it
possible to install from completely different layouts, because the base is
known (user input), the category-dir is known (one before last part of the
Filename: field) and the filename is known as well from there.
Huh. :) Something like that.
> Peter> which is incorrect, since my packages are (for example) in
> Peter> hamm/hamm/binary-i386/, and *not* dists/frozen/main/binary-i386/.
>
> I think the solution is to conform to the layout on the
> archive site locally. I just moved my hamm directory to dists, and
> made a link from it to frozen.
Of course it can be done by either modifying my layout or by changing the
path handling of apt. My layer is different because I mirror just parts of
the tree and that way some links cannot be created automatically, and I
have to create them, exclude them from deleting them next time, etc.
Of course it is NOT the goal to make apt team to fiddle with the code when
not necessary -- I told about that because with a small effort it could
handle any layout, IF this is preferable.
So if you think people shall stick to original layout and apt does not
need to handle renegades then its okay, put the standard layout's
description into the README of apt and the problem's handled. ;-)
> Peter> It can be solved by using only the "real relative part" of the path, and
> Peter> not to "guess" my layout behind the directories I entered in the setup.
> Peter> Dunno how big the work is...
>
> I think making changes locally (would a simple symlink work, I
> wonder?) is not too much of a task, is it?
Actually it requires manual intervention, modification of the mirror
scripts, etc. No, it's not THAT big work. Is the standard layout is
mentioned somewhere around apt or dselect?
=============================+===============================================
Peter "grin" Gervai | "It was like a visit by Don Corleone. I
Linux maniac at Cory-Net Ltd.| expected to find a bloody computer monitor in
Szekszard, Hungary | my bed the next day." -- Mark Andreessen of
grin@iRCnet on #linux.hu | Netscape regarding the visit from microsoft.
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