| brent saner on 22 Mar 2011 12:28:02 -0700 |
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| Re: [PLUG] Linux and package managers/repos |
One urgent note for Gentoo users: emerge world will....re-merge every package in the world file. correct syntax: emerge -uDNva world flags: -u update (if a package version was rolled back, unmerge newest and install that version instead. likely because of a severe security flaw found) -D consider the entire dependency tree (i.e. not only package foo, but every package foo depends on). very handy for packages that had a changed dependency version/package with an update. -N check for new USE flags (just in case you updated them and forgot to re-merge packages that needed it.) -v verbose. optional, obviously, but it's good to know what packages and in what order they'll be updated/installed. -a ask before doing anything. this is a Good Idea(TM) because it gives one the chance to review packages before installing instead of mashing ctrl-v because you forgot to change a USE flag. :) On 3/22/11, JP Vossen <jp@jpsdomain.org> wrote: > Last night at PLUG W we briefly discussed package managers, and how > Gentoo, RPM and APT systems work. A longer discussion here is out of my > scope at the moment, but I wanted to provide a concrete example of > something I was talking about, that I think is very important, but that > doesn't get the press it deserves. > > Well, it actually does get a lot of press, but under a different name > and in a different context. The one that gets press is called an "app > store," but Linux has had that since Debian (at least, possibly longer?) > except it's called a "repository" and it's full of free (as in no cost > and freedom) software. > > There are 2 main reasons why this matters: > 1) updates > 2) ease-of-use, which encompasses: ease of discovery, compatibility, > user experience, ease of removal, and so forth. > > I'll contrast against Windows, but I'm pretty sure that Mac is about the > same as Windows here (that'll change sooner or later with a "Mac Store" > if it hasn't already). > > To update Windows you use WindowsUpdate, which was tacked on at the 11th > hour because no one updated anything and thus left gaping holes > everywhere. And it only updates the core OS and a few selected > Microsoft apps (Office). There are various (expensive) third-party > solutions that do better and some apps will update themselves, thus > leading to many and conflicting auto-updaters, and different, > semi-uncontrollable schedules. Ugly, ugly, ugly. > > On the other hand, since not too long after the dawn of Linux, this has > been baked in to the very core of what a "distribution" is. And as long > as you stay inside the package manager, 'sudo aptitude update && sudo > aptitude full-upgrade' updates *everything* on the system...bang...done. > (Or 'yum upgrade' for Red Hat-ish or 'emerge world' (Rich, right?) for > Gentoo.) > > So what does "stay inside the package manager" mean? It means that you > don't install stuff from source (except Gentoo, but that *is* the > package manager :), you install from the repo. OK, but what if you need > "foo?" Don't worry, it's in there. (My example last night for reading > MRI results was "aeskulap - medical image viewer and DICOM network client".) > > So, todays example. I got an email at work discussion a non-intuitive > customer name issue, and I thought I'd be funny and try to do an anagram > of it. But the name was 19 characters, which is too long for the > web-based anagram engines. So in literally 10 minutes (read the > timestamps) I: > 1) Searched for apps to solve my problem > 2) installed one, took a few minutes to realize didn't like it > 3) installed the other, took a few minutes to use it > 4) purged the one I didn't like, and am sure it's really gone > > How long would a search for a similar tool take for Windows? You have > to Google it, read various descriptions scattered all over the web, > choose from possibly hundreds of analysis-paralysis-inducing choices, > download it, hope it's not malware, figure out how to install it, try > it, then figure out if it will cleanly uninstall (probably not). Not > for me... > > Notes: > * I prefer the command line. There are various GUI tools that do all of > this too. The names change based on distro and version of distro. Poke > around... > * I also wrote a tool to help me remember how to do some things. It's > called 'deb' but it shows the real command it used. > > > Start: 14:32:32 > Stop: 14:42:42 > > [jp@ringo:T4:L2:C509:J0:2011-03-20_14:32:32_EDT] > /home/jp$ deb search anagram > apt-cache search anagram | sort | /usr/bin/less --quit-if-one-screen > --no-init > 1 an - very fast anagram generator > 2 anagramarama - fast paced anagram puzzle game using SDL > 3 anagramarama-data - fast paced anagram puzzle game using SDL > (data files) > 4 kanagram - jumble word puzzle for KDE 4 > 5 kdeedu-kvtml-data - kvtml files for kdeedu programs > 6 wordplay - anagram generator > > [jp@ringo:T4:L2:C510:J0:2011-03-22_14:32:34_EDT] > /home/jp$ deb show an wordplay > apt-cache show an wordplay | /usr/bin/less --quit-if-one-screen --no-init > 1 Package: an > 2 Priority: optional > 3 Section: universe/games > 4 Installed-Size: 88 > 5 Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers > <ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com> > 6 Original-Maintainer: Paul Martin <pm@debian.org> > 7 Architecture: amd64 > 8 Version: 0.95-3.2 > 9 Depends: libc6 (>= 2.4) > 10 Recommends: wbritish | wordlist > 11 Filename: pool/universe/a/an/an_0.95-3.2_amd64.deb > 12 Size: 15366 > 13 MD5sum: 9149bb5c5e836a002c4f0eaef71fd747 > 14 SHA1: e7b22754f20913e6654ddb4a3613fcb6a113920b > 15 SHA256: > a726e120ef29a983059bc2c561708aad97c5b80ed645d459884fccc1dcc099a3 > 16 Description: very fast anagram generator > 17 Generates anagrams for a phrase supplied by the user, the > words used in the > 18 anagram are taken from a specified dictionary which should > contain one word > 19 per line (default:/usr/share/dict/words). Appears to be up to > 10 times > 20 faster than wordplay, especially for longer phrases. > 21 Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug > 22 Origin: Ubuntu > 23 > 24 Package: wordplay > 25 Priority: optional > 26 Section: universe/games > 27 Installed-Size: 296 > 28 Maintainer: Pawel Wiecek <coven@debian.org> > 29 Architecture: amd64 > 30 Version: 7.22-17 > 31 Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.4-1) > 32 Filename: pool/universe/w/wordplay/wordplay_7.22-17_amd64.deb > 33 Size: 106750 > 34 MD5sum: 8ba33dadc8fbf580ff4d20db3c0b707b > 35 SHA1: 6c2737731411d1f4920e6ca53e9b1d13dd9522b9 > 36 SHA256: > 84c59374f3dc90929a9d1ee1fc56361635cc2d7b6c98bf26c57333d72e22701a > 37 Description: anagram generator > 38 Wordplay generates anagrams of words or phrases. For example, > 39 "Debian GNU/Linux" = "laud benign unix", "nubian lug index", > 40 "dang nubile unix", or "I debug in lax nun". > 41 Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug > 42 Origin: Ubuntu > > [jp@ringo:T4:L2:C511:J0:2011-03-22_14:33:09_EDT] > /home/jp$ sudo aptitude install an > [...] > > [jp@ringo:T4:L2:C512:J0:2011-03-22_14:33:46_EDT] > /home/jp$ an 'Some long name here' | less > <...choke...> > > [jp@ringo:T4:L2:C515:J0:2011-03-22_14:35:44_EDT] > /home/jp$ sudo aptitude install wordplay > [...] > > [jp@ringo:T4:L2:C516:J0:2011-03-22_14:37:04_EDT] > /home/jp$ wordplay 'Some long name here' | less > <1,124,644 anagrams...not as funny as I thought, but I'll keep this app> > > [jp@ringo:T4:L2:C518:J0:2011-03-22_14:42:42_EDT] > /home/jp$ sudo aptitude purge an > > > Later, > JP > ----------------------------|:::======|------------------------------- > JP Vossen, CISSP |:::======| http://bashcookbook.com/ > My Account, My Opinions |=========| http://www.jpsdomain.org/ > ----------------------------|=========|------------------------------- > "Microsoft Tax" = the additional hardware & yearly fees for the add-on > software required to protect Windows from its own poorly designed and > implemented self, while the overhead incidentally flattens Moore's Law. > ___________________________________________________________________________ > Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org > Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce > General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug > -- Brent Saner 504.338.1513 http://www.houseoftherisingson.org ___________________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug