Bug#58439: apt: apt-get reinstalls installed compiled package
Package: apt
Version: 0.3.18
Severity: normal
I'm not sure if this is a bug as such, or a Debian policy that seems to me
wrong.
I can download the debian source and compile a package for myself using
'./debian/rules binary', and then install the resulting .deb using dpkg.
(I might want to do this, for instance, in order to compile with Pentium
optimisation).
But after this, I find that if I perform "apt-get upgrade", that package
gets reinstalled with the very same version downloaded afresh from the ftp
repository, so I lose my optimised compilation. This happens even though
the version number is exactly the same, and even though my compilation is in
fact more recent by compilation date. This seems highly inappropriate
behaviour.
There is a workaround, by "holding" that package after I install my own
compilation, or by adding a custom entry to .debian/changelog, but neither
of these seem terribly satisfactory. I haven't changed the package, I've
merely recompiled it, so why should it have to be registered as a "custom
version"? Once I've installed a package of a given version number, it
shouldn't have to be reinstalled again by the same version.
I thought I'd bring up the "problem" to see what you think.
Drew Parsons
-- System Information
Debian Release: 2.2
Kernel Version: Linux strider 2.2.14 #1 Tue Jan 18 14:37:24 PST 2000 i686 unknown
Versions of the packages apt depends on:
ii libc6 2.1.3-2 GNU C Library: Shared libraries and Timezone
ii libstdc++2.10 2.95.2-5 The GNU stdc++ library
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