[Techtalk] package hell: Related .deb question

[Figaro]

Okay, perhaps I could look into the scripts in the .deb and see if one
may be able comment out the pertinent files?
Generally the .deb is built by me from .rpm using:
#alien --scripts what/ever/the_program-xxx.i386.rpm.
Otherwise several vendors supply a tar ball with .rpms and a generic
.deb which sometimes calls a recompile script if something is not
exactly to 'snuff' (usually kernel version or gcc, sometimes a specific
lib., etc...).

Anyway, thank you. It would appear that i may need to dig much deeper
than my IT folk, not to mention the vendor support rep. will be happy
with ;-).

Someone suggested making a cd-rom of the .debs and use the apt-cdrom
-d=/media/cdrom0, or maybe apt-cdrom ident
Does this make sense?
Thank you,
matthew



Wim De Smet wrote:
> On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 5:16 PM, Elwing <elwing at elwing.org> wrote:
>> On May 7, 2008, at 11:10 AM, Figaro wrote:
>>
>>  > I have a series of programs that occasionally need to be updated (cad
>>  > and structural-sim softwares). Obviously they are locally installed,
>>  > they are either .deb or .deb that I build from .rpm's using the alien
>>  > program.
>>  > What I would love to be able to do would be add them to the apt-cache
>>  > list somehow for simple package update.
>>  > At present I only know how to use dpkg -i /some/dir/my/
>>  > super.i386.deb to
>>  > install them. Which always wipes out the license files and often
>>  > causes
>>  > much grief for me with the IT group and vendors to get new license
>>  > codes
>>  >  (assuming one can convince both "IT" and the vendor my story is
>>  > valid).
>>  > Anyway, does anyone here have an idea how to easily do this?
>>  > Thank you,
>>  You can use a local repository (http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/repository-howto/repository-howto
>>  ) , but I believe (and I may be wrong) that ultimately, apt-get still
>>  runs dpkg -i and you may still lose your information.  I'm not sure
>>  how apt treats configuration information on local repositories.
>>
> 
> You are not wrong: apt simply makes sure all dependencies are
> fulfilled before installing a package, but then it just runs dpkg to
> install it.
> 
> The way this normally works with license files and the like is that
> they are marked in the package as special files (configuration files)
> that can't be overwritten without the user's permission. Apparently
> dpkg can't figure out from the selfbuilt packages that the license
> files are config files and just overwrites as if they are a program
> binary that needs to be upgraded.
> 
> That's about as far as my knowledge of a debian package goes
> unfortunately and fixing it of course depends on where you got it and
> how it was built.
> 
> greets,
> Wim
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