| brent saner on 22 Mar 2011 12:37:07 -0700 |
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| Re: [PLUG] Linux and package managers/repos |
(last email for now, promise).
what i really like about portage (Gentoo's package management
system... dpkg:apt/aptitude/synaptic::portage:emerge/portato/paludius::rpm:yum)
is it has very defined categories.
zsh 4288 % eix -S anagram
* app-text/an
Available versions: 0.95.3 (~)0.95.3.2
Homepage: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/games/an
Description: Very fast anagram generator with dictionary lookup
* app-text/wscr
Available versions: 1.2 (~)1.2-r1
Homepage: http://hood.sjfn.nb.ca/~eddie/wscr.html
Description: A Lightweight and Fast Anagram Solver
*(the -S flag means "search package DESCRIPTIONS, not names)
if you use Gentoo and haven't emerged eix, layman, and gentoolkit and
gentoolkit-dev, DO SO NOW! it makes package handling, searching,
creating, editing, etc. a breeze.
(and one can search with the emerge utility as well, but... it's
horribly slow. eix builds a cache when you update the local portage
snapshot, which gives instantaneous results instead of, like emerge,
parsing each and every ebuild. eix also supports things like regex
searching and the like).
On 3/22/11, brent saner <brent.saner@gmail.com> wrote:
> whoops, typo. s/ctrl-v/ctrl-c/. :)
>
> On 3/22/11, brent saner <brent.saner@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 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
>>
>
>
> --
> Brent Saner
> 504.338.1513
>
> http://www.houseoftherisingson.org
>
--
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