-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Yesterday I decided to take the plunge and install/configure apt on my Red Hat Linux 8.0 system.
Installation was a breeze. Just download the apt rpm from http://freshrpms.net/ and rpm -Uvh it. After installation I scratched my head for a while since (a) I had duplicate rpms in my repository (warning: rpm -F installs the fresh rpms alongside the old ones and creates duplicates. rpm -U upgrades existing rpms, but it also installs new ones even if they currently aren't installed. Need the best of both worlds) and (b) I was getting missing sources files errors whenever I tried to run apt-get. The solution to (a) was simple if tedious: remove the older versions of duplicate rpms manually. The solution to (b) was even simpler: I finally remembered my apt-using days and did an apt-get update to get the sources files from the server. After that life became exceedingly simple. Remember, this was around midnight, so I just did an: apt-get upgrade After telling me that apt needed to download ~36MB of data, it prompted me whether I wanted to continue or not. I blithely pressed `Yes', switched off the monitor and went to sleep. When I awoke the morning I had a spanking-clean system with all the latest security patches installed on it. Apt works like a charm: it figures out which packages you have, which packages need to be upgraded and then just goes and upgrades them. It also automatically handles dependencies, so you're never in RPM dependency hell again. For those who haven't heard of it, apt is the most popular package manager for Debian. From the introduction at freshrpms.net: APT (Advanced Package Tool) is well know by debian users since it is used by default with their dpkg package format. But apt has been ported to work with rpm packages by Conectiva, which has now used it for some time in their GNU/Linux distribution. The good news is that apt for rpm may be used with any other rpm-based distribution! All you need is the tool compiled for your version of rpm and at least a repository where rpm packages and their apt metadata can be found. Apt rocks for keeping your RPM-based system up to date. I'd strongly recommend it to anyone who needs a good automatic package, dependency and sources manager. Regards, - -- Raju - -- Raj Mathur [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://kandalaya.org/ It is the mind that moves -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.7 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Processed by Mailcrypt 3.5.6 and Gnu Privacy Guard <http://www.gnupg.org/> iD8DBQE+XEMTyWjQ78xo0X8RAqdHAJ9guxrgTOUiYDpDbHCwWA0bjnvUnwCgg4cg Jg1xMTvDe27Xi+CUopA2FSo= =SwLO -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ================================================ To unsubscribe, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with unsubscribe in subject header. Check archives at http://www.mail-archive.com/ilugd%40wpaa.org
