[vox-tech] debian question: building from source

[Matt Roper]

On Tue, Aug 27, 2002 at 08:42:43PM -0700, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> hola,
> 
> i'm planning on building mozilla from source (i already installed and
> configed pentium builder).
> 
> one question.
> 
> i'm 100% positive that the day i install the optimized version of
> mozilla, mozilla will get upgraded and my optimized version will get
> wiped.
> 
> is there any way to mark a package as "don't update this, just notify me
> when new source if available"?
> 
> of course, i run apt-get twice (first with "-n" and then again for real
> when i'm sure mozilla hasn't been updated).  but that's a drag.

I believe that this is what placing a package on "hold" does.  The
debian faq describes the "hold" status as:

    * hold - the user wants this package not to be processed, i.e., he
      wants to keep the current version with the current status
      whatever that is.

    6.12. How do I put a package on hold?
    -------------------------------------

         There are two ways of holding back packages, with dpkg, or with
         dselect.

         With dpkg, you just have to export the list of package selections,
         with:

              dpkg --get-selections \* > selections.txt

         Then edit the resulting file `selections.txt', change the line
         containing the package you wish to hold, e.g.  `libc6', from this:

              libc6                                           install

         to this:

              libc6                                           hold

         Save the file, and reload it into dpkg database with:

              dpkg --set-selections < selections.txt

         With dselect, you just have to enter the [S]elect screen, find the
         package you wish to hold in its present state, and press the `=' key
         (or `H').  The changes will go live immediately after you exit the
         [S]elect screen.

> also, i'm not sure marking mozilla as "immutable" is a good idea.  but
> i'm not sure.

You mean use chattr to set the filesystem's immutable flag on the
executable?  I don't think that would be a good idea because dpkg would
probably crash out with errors when it noticed that the package wasn't
unpacking properly.  It might work, but I suspect you'd get a lot of
errors.

> i have many more ideas, but i'd like to hear what other debian users do
> (or would do).

One option to consider is to just uninstall the mozilla package and
build from source without worrying about creating a new debian package.
You could download the source from mozilla.org or take it from mozilla's
source package under debian.  That way, apt-get will never step on your
version of mozilla (and even if you did accidentally reinstall the
mozilla package, your custom build would probably be safe in
/usr/local).  The only real problem with this solution is if you have
packages that depend on the mozilla package...


Matt

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