Re: [PLUG] new @ debian/apt maintenance

[Art Alexion <art.alexion@verizon.net>]

sean finney wrote:

> On Thu, Dec 02, 2004 at 10:54:22PM -0500, Art Alexion wrote:
>  
>
> > (With Red Hat I made extensive use of source RPMs and checkinstall to 
> > keep the RPM database current while freeing myself from the distro 
> > provided versions.  Is there a similar approach with Debian based systems?)
> >    
>
> you can do almost anything you want in /usr/local on a debian system
> without fear of repercussions.  if you have other software that needs
> to have a package installed but you want to use a seperate version from
> source, you can use the "equivs" package to convince your system you
> have a package installed.
>  

Sean,

I think that you nailed my question, but please give more details (or 
point me to something to read).  What are "equivs" packages?  Let me 
give you the example that prompted this question.  Warty comes with OOo 
1.1.2.  The 1.1.4 version fixes a ton of bugs 
(http://download.openoffice.org/1.1.4rc/release_notes_1.1.4rc.html), so 
I want to upgrade.  One of the maintainers on the Ubuntu users list 
indicated that there are no plans to add the upgrade to the apt 
repository, and warned against installing using the OOo install script.  
I have installed many instances of OOo always using the install scripts, 
and never had a problem -- on Red Hat distros.  My concern is that I 
have a version of OOo installed via apt, and it may be a non-standard 
installation as far as distro integration goes, so I want to make sure I 
don't mess up the apt database. 

So what are "equivs packages" and how do I use them?

Thanks.

--

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Art Alexion
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