<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Aug 13, 2009 at 4:28 PM, Robert P. J. Day <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:rpjday@crashcourse.ca">rpjday@crashcourse.ca</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br>
as a followup to my earlier post(s), i have to ask -- is it just my<br>
unfamiliarity with .deb package management, or is the sackful of<br>
debian package mgmt utilities really that much of a pain?<br>
</blockquote><div><br>For what its worth, here is a counter point.<br>
<br>
I have been using Debian (Ubuntu), and it is <br>
a breeze compared to the alternatives.<br>
<br>
All I do is use the default repository, which has a vast assortment of applications,<br>and use the high level aptitude (not even apt-get, nor the lower level dpkg tool).<br>It is very reliable, resolves dependencies automatically, and everything just works.<br>
<br> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br>
seriously, over the last couple days, i've tried to do some *very*<br>
simple things and, to my consternation, discovered that there's no<br>
easy way to do them.<br>
</blockquote><div><br>Searching for a package is easy<br>
# aptitude search something <br>
<br>
Installing is easy<br>
# aptitude install somepackage<br>
<br>
Removing is easy<br>
# aptitude remove somepackage<br>
<br>
Or purge the files that was installed<br>
# aptitude purge somepackage<br>
<br>
Staying up to date is the easiest part<br>
# aptitude update && aptitude safe-upgrade<br>
<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br>
case in point: i have a .deb file sitting in front of me, on the<br>
system. i want to install it, and have the process automatically go<br>
out and grab the deps for it. AFAICT, no single command for that.<br>
</blockquote><div><br>I don't know about your specific case, but dpkg is at a very low level<br>
down the .deb chain. Higher level tools are the ones that should be used<br>
to resolve dependencies and install what is needed. By using dpkg, you<br>
are going down to a low level.<br>
<br>Those high level tools do call dpkg themselves.<br>
<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br>
similarly, i have the .deb file of a newer version for a package<br>
that's already installed. how to upgrade using that, again with deps<br>
being handled automagically? no idea.<br>
</blockquote><div><br>For me, on production systems, I want to stay with whatever is in the repository, <br>because that is tested together as a whole and dependencies, compatibilities are <br>resolved.<br> <br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<br>
i'll spend the evening reading the pkg mgmt docs for debian but,<br>
really, i would have thought that what i was trying to do should be<br>
*incredibly* straightforward. not to sound parochial, but i have been<br>
seriously spoiled by yum and rpm.<br>
</blockquote><div><br> <br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br>
rday<br>
--<br>
<br>
========================================================================<br>
Robert P. J. Day Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA<br>
<br>
Linux Consulting, Training and Annoying Kernel Pedantry.<br>
<br>
Web page: <a href="http://crashcourse.ca" target="_blank">http://crashcourse.ca</a><br>
Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/rpjday" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/rpjday</a><br>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Khalid M. Baheyeldin<br><a href="http://2bits.com">2bits.com</a>, Inc.<br><a href="http://2bits.com">http://2bits.com</a><br>Drupal optimization, development, customization and consulting.<br>
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