>>>> "JP" == Johannes Plass <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

You're right.

What I do is to build an empty package that provide all the (virtual)
packages that I have something equivalent under /usr/local. I just
call this package asgard-local (asgard is my box name), install it and
dselect stop barking. There's a lot of times an user don't want the
Debian packages. e.g:

        Xserver : too much garbage built-in
        fvwm*   : I want my own hacked version
        gcc     : I want -frepo
        ***     : debian packaged an obsolete (read old) version.

Just grab the hello.*-*.tgz source package, and create your empty
package.  It's very easy.


-------
L.D.


 JP> Debian's realization of package dependencies is, in my opinion,
 JP> too tight.
 JP> Two (out of many possible) examples may illustrate my point:
 JP>    - A user doesn't want to install Debian's ghostscript since
 JP>      he is a ghostscript beta tester and has a newer version
 JP>      than Debian provides.
 JP>      However, since he wants to use previewers like gv, ghostview
 JP>      and xdvi (which depend on ghostscript) he MUST install the
 JP>      Debian ghostscript.
 JP>    - A user wants to install ghostscript.
 JP>      Due to a dependence on "libpaper" which "doesn't seem to
 JP>      be available" this fails. Since previewers like ghostview
 JP>      and xdvi (why actually does xdvi depend on ghostscript ?)
 JP>      depend on this package the user is left with a system
 JP>      on which he cannot view .ps and .dvi files.

 JP> The basic problem is that deselect doesn't allow to override
 JP> any dependencies specified by package maintainers. This, however,
 JP> is necessary since package dependencies
 JP>    - may point to non-existing packages.
 JP>    - may not be reasonable (xdvi depends on ghostscript ?).
 JP>    - may already be satisfied by local software deselect doesn't
 JP>      know about.

 JP> It would already help a lot if deselect allowed the administrator
 JP> to install a package as a "ghost" in the sense that:
 JP>    - the package counts as being installed as far as deselect
 JP>      is concerned.
 JP>    - deselect does not attempt to unpack/install the package.

 JP> But as it is currently, maintaining a Debian system by using
 JP> deselect is a real pain ...

 JP> Regards,

 JP> Johannes Plass


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