[kwlug-disc] is it just me, or is debian package management painful?

[Robert P. J. Day]

  as a followup to my earlier post(s), i have to ask -- is it just my
unfamiliarity with .deb package management, or is the sackful of
debian package mgmt utilities really that much of a pain?

  seriously, over the last couple days, i've tried to do some *very*
simple things and, to my consternation, discovered that there's no
easy way to do them.

  case in point:  i have a .deb file sitting in front of me, on the
system.  i want to install it, and have the process automatically go
out and grab the deps for it.  AFAICT, no single command for that.

  similarly, i have the .deb file of a newer version for a package
that's already installed.  how to upgrade using that, again with deps
being handled automagically?  no idea.

  i'll spend the evening reading the pkg mgmt docs for debian but,
really, i would have thought that what i was trying to do should be
*incredibly* straightforward.  not to sound parochial, but i have been
seriously spoiled by yum and rpm.

rday
--

========================================================================
Robert P. J. Day                               Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA

        Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry.

Web page:                                          http://crashcourse.ca
Twitter:                                       http://twitter.com/rpjday
========================================================================