Hi, On Wed, Nov 05, 2008 at 01:26:31AM +0000, Sam Kuper wrote: > When stability is pointless > =========================== > > Many Linux distributions (and other software environments too) use > package managers to facilitate the installation, upgrading and > uninstallation of software packages as needed. At least, that's the > idea.
Debian acknowledges this problem and we have 2 special archives: volatile volatile-sloppy You do not seem to use these. Please check: http://people.debian.org/~osamu/pub/getwiki/html/ch03.en.html#debianarchivebasics http://www.debian.org/volatile/ (Also if you need new feature, backports.org is place to use.) > Why have package managers? > -------------------------- > > Are package managers necessary? Well, no. What???? We need this to keep consistency, ... > One way of managing software > is simply to install individual software programs/libraries as needed, > and allow each item to handle its own updating or uninstallation (or > even just leave that to the user to do manually). Within stable Debian and security updates and volatile, this is supported. I do not know what you mean by "manually", though. > That's pretty much how Windows handles things. Not really. We know some softwares works on security updated system. ... > An example > ---------- > > Here is my scenario. I have a server running Ubuntu 8.04 LTS: a > "stable", recent release of a Debian-based Linux distribution. I wish > to install a security-related program called "psad" (short for "Port > Scan Attack Detector) on that server. However, the stable package of > psad for Ubuntu 8.04 turns out to house version 2.1 of psad. That > wouldn't bother me, except that… I can't set it up! This is Ubuntu problem. Please ask them. > The reason I'm having difficulty setting it up is that the > documentation on installing psad refer not to version 2.1 but to > version 2.1.4, which requires setting up differently to 2.1. Debian usually supply NEWS or README.Debian to adress these issue. I have to say Documentation is generally weak point on Debian. ... Osamu -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
