Apt-cache with a bit of grep is a powerful tool indeed. $apt-cache search foo | grep bar
everyone I work with however prefers yum. They regard Debian as being a bit backward. On 17/10/2007, Tim Cutts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On 16 Oct 2007, at 10:19 pm, Robert G. Brown wrote: > > > On Tue, 16 Oct 2007, Jon Tegner wrote: > > > >> You should switch to a .deb-system, to save you some trouble: > >> > >> $ apt-cache search jove > >> jove - Jonathan's Own Version of Emacs - a compact, powerful editor > >> > >> Sorry, couldn't resist ;-) > > > > Hey, it's ok. I'm actually trisystemal. FC 6 on top (soon to jump to > > 8, but in no hurry), VMware, then debian and XP Pro VM. And yes, > > it was > > a good thing debian already had jove as I still don't really know > > how to > > build debian packages, > > If you want a good introduction to debian packages and how they work, > then I recommend Martin Krafft's book "The Debian System". I've been > a Debian Developer for ten years, and that book still teaches me > useful stuff about Debian on a regular basis. > > The chapter on packaging is superb; it teaches you how to make > packages from the ground up, so you really understand how they work, > starting with the basic fact that fundamentally a debian binary > package is an ar archive which contains two tarballs. One, > data.tar.gz contains the files belonging to the package. The other, > control.tar.gz, contains the scripts and information about the > package used by the packaging tools, and at a minimum this contains > two files: DEBIAN/control, which contains the information about the > package (description, dependencies and whatnot) and DEBIAN/md5sums > which is, as you'd expect, a list of md5sums of all the plain files > in the package. > > Once he's shown you how to build a Debian package manually like that, > he then shows you how to do it the more normal way using the various > wrapper scripts that Debian provides for the purpose to make life a > bit easier (and to help enforce the Debian policy on packages) > > Debian doesn't really have a source package idea like Red Hat - > instead, when you use "apt-get source" to download the source for a > package you get three files; the upstream tarball, which is > completely unmodified from upstream. You also get a gzipped patch, > and a description file containing md5sums for the patch and the > tarball, amongst other things. Typically, the patch creates a debian > directory within the upstream source directory, and inside that > debian directory is a file called "rules". This is just a normal > makefile, containing all the instructions for configuring, compiling > and packaging the software on a Debian system. Once you have one of > these things, building the .debs is just a matter of typing: > > dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot > > or something similar. There are still fancier things available for > doing this by keeping the sources and debian/* files in a CVS, > subversion or other revision control repository. I use these in my > own package management activities to be able to go back and build > previous releases when users report bugs against them. > > > and manage to get myself confused by apt tools > > I can sympathise. I've only started using aptitude since etch came > out, and it's taken me some time to get used to, but now that I am, I > quite like it, for the most part. Especially the etch version, the > version of it in sarge had some really annoying behaviour under > certain circumstances. > > > (I'm too used to yum). But there is no doubt: > > > > a) Debian is a perfectly useful, fully functional variety of linux, > > and I have been painfully taught to bow down before its selection of > > available packages, which is for all practical purposes inexhaustible. > > In fact, you need a search engine with powerful features even to go > > shopping amongst them. > > ... which fortunately it provides for you. It's called apt-cache. > > Regards, > > Tim > > > -- > The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is operated by Genome Research > Limited, a charity registered in England with number 1021457 and a > company registered in England with number 2742969, whose registered > office is 215 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BE. > _______________________________________________ > Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org > To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit > http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf > _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf@beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf
