pplaw wrote: >
<snip> > this is where i am: > > i've downloaded > "/dists/stable/main/binary-i386/doc/man.db_2.3.10-68.deb". > > question: > > how does one actually read this file? (is it a "text" doc? is it a doc > that can only be read through linux? if so, which program/command do i > need?) It's a "package file", containing such things as the program itself and configuration instructions, such as where to install it and what questions to ask of the sys admin during the installation/configuration, etc. You need to use the "dselect" or "dpkg" or "apt-get" tool to actually install it. I believe that if you'll go to the directory where the .deb file is, you can do the command (as root) "dpkg --install man.db_2.3.10-68.deb" to install it. However, I'm not well-versed in the intricacies of dpkg, so maybe someone else can verify/correct this.
