[vox-tech] non-apt-get replace perl-base == problems

[Mike Simons]

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On Wed, May 14, 2003 at 03:18:20PM -0700, Michael Wenk wrote:
> The problem I have with debian is partly cpled with the fact that=20
> I don't know it as well as I know other OSes.  Take HP-UX or Solaris for=
=20
> example.  If I install perl on those, it doesn't break things like=20
> swinstall(hp-ux) or pkgadd(solaris), however on debian, I installed perl =
5.8=20
> on debian and it trashed very important things like apt and dselect.

  Hp-ux and solaris have no problems because as of a few years ago they
didn't have perl as a standard component... so their package management
systems don't use them.  Debian uses perl for many things, I think it
is the single largest component of the base system ...


# apt-get remove perl-base
[...]
WARNING: The following essential packages will be removed
This should NOT be done unless you know exactly what you are doing!
  perl-base=20
2 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 146 to remove and 12  not upgraded.
Need to get 5774kB of archives. After unpacking 307MB will be freed.
You are about to do something potentially harmful
To continue type in the phrase 'Yes, do as I say!'
 ?]=20


  If there are problems perl wasn't installed in /usr/local ... or
you changed the /usr/bin/perl link to point at the new version and
some required modules were not available.


> What I=20
> want from an OS is a typical way to install the system and then get the h=
ell=20
> out of my way(and be able to handle gracefully what I do, even if it mean=
s it=20
> just detects the change and throws up its proverbial hands and says "hey,=
 I=20
> can't work with this, cya")

  If you installed anything (including perl) in /usr/local on Debian
you will not have any problems.

  I suspect that the error messages apt gave you were that tool's
own special way of saying "I can't work with this, cya".  ;)

  If one installs anything into the system directories from source=20
without telling the packaging system about it, long term, down the=20
line there will have problems, in practically any system because
stray bits of kruft will develop over time...


> [Gentoo] it provides me an easy way to get=20
> software I want that is up to date, and it will get the heck out of my=20
> way(least so far.) =20

  Debian does provide a way to get up to date versions software,=20
along three scales of freshness (stable, testing, unstable).

  If the package isn't in stable and you want to keep most of stable
you can upgrade just the packages you want (apt-get -t testing install) or=
=20
recompile the testing/unstable versions with stable dependencies...
(apt-get -t testing source FOO; cd FOO-*; dpkg-buildpackage).

  If the official maintainer isn't working quickly enough for you, it
is possible to go to unofficial apt sources for the compiled versions
(http://www.apt-get.org/) but you should be more wary of these packages.

  If no one is "debian packaging" for you quickly enough, install source
into /usr/local... or you can package things yourself, for most packages
you can move the 'debian' directory into a newer upstream source
tar ball, change a few things, and dpkg-buildpackage ... but this=20
is getting very technical (and honestly I haven't done often enough=20
to explain well).

--=20
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