dpkg-divert

[Evan Broder]

Hi -
  Some colleagues of mine at MIT developed a set of tools for
handling this sort of scenario, called config-package-dev. It makes
doing this sort of thing very easy.

Basically, you pick a suffix for the files you're configuring (ours
was .debathena), then install the file with the .debathena suffix
(e.g. the package resulting package would include an
/etc/xdg/menus/application.menu.debathena file).

In the debian/rules file, you set a couple of variables to tell
config-package-dev what to do.

Then at install time, an auto-generated postinst script would divert
/etc/xdg/menus/application.menu ->
/etc/xdg/menus/application.menu.debathena-orig, and create a symlink
from /etc/xdg/menus/application.menu ->
/etc/xdg/menus/application.menu.debathena

There's documentation on how to use config-package-dev at
<http://debathena.mit.edu/config-package-dev/>. The Debathena project
at MIT wants to see other people using config-package-dev, so feel
free to drop us a line at debathena at mit.edu if you run into any
problems.

- Evan

On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 2:21 PM, rosea grammostola
<rosea.grammostola at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I made a custom package to customize the Gnome2 menus. When I install the
> package I get the warning:
>  trying to overwrite '/etc/xdg/menus/applications.menu', which is also in
> package gnome-menus 0:2.30.0-0ubuntu4
>
> To fix this I was looking into dpkg-divert, but it didn't became clear to me
> how this actually works and how I should use it.
>
> The existing applications.menu file (gnome-menu package) should be renamed
> to something like applications.menu_bak right?
>
> This is what I have in the preinst file right now:
>
> dpkg-divert --divert /etc/xdg/menus/applications.menu_gnome --rename
> /etc/xdg/menus/applications.menu
>
> But it gives:
>
> (Reading database ... 141750 files and directories currently installed.)
> Unpacking openstudiomenu (from .../openstudiomenu_0.1-1ubuntu1_i386.deb) ...
> Adding `local diversion of /etc/xdg/menus/applications.menu to
> /etc/xdg/menus/applications.menu_gnome'
> dpkg: error processing /tmp/openstudiomenu_0.1-1ubuntu1_i386.deb
> (--install):
>  trying to overwrite '/etc/xdg/menus/applications.menu', which is also in
> package gnome-menus 0:2.30.0-0ubuntu4
> Removing `local diversion of /etc/xdg/menus/applications.menu to
> /etc/xdg/menus/applications.menu_gnome'
> Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils ...
> Processing triggers for python-gmenu ...
> Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/desktop.en_US.utf8.cache...
> Processing triggers for python-support ...
> Errors were encountered while processing:
>  /tmp/openstudiomenu_0.1-1ubuntu1_i386.deb
>
>
> Another thing I would like to know is how to make upgrades to new versions
> of the package run ok?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> \r
>
>
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