Manually update a library? And a GetDeb question?

[Jonathan Marsden]

On 02/09/2013 07:45 AM, John Hupp wrote:

> Regarding my last question below, I now see that Synaptic uses dpkg, 
> so it seems very likely that despite the language of some of the 
> documentation, there is probably only one package database shared by 
> all the relevant tools.  Enlighten me if that's incorrect.

Both /var/lib/dpkg/ and /var/cache/apt/ exist on my systems, and both
contain data about packages.  So in that general sense, I suspect you
are incorrect.

However, in practice, it may be that apt keeps additional information
(possibly about dependencies and why certain packages were installed)
that dpkg does not, in which case you can use both dpkg and apt to do
package management on the same PC with no problem.  This is my personal
experience, at least.

My best guess, therefore, is that apt uses the dpkg data about packages,
but maintains some additional info for commands and capabilities it has,
which dpkg does not.  I've not needed to look into this is more depth
than that (such as by reading detailed apt docs and/or the apt source
code) to find out exactly what apt stores and why it needs it.

Jonathan