Installing .deb packages with apt-get

[Derek Broughton]

Dotan Cohen wrote:

> On 20/05/07, Derek Broughton <news at pointerstop.ca> wrote:
>> You don't need to do a simulation.  aptitude or apt-get will always tell
>> you what's going to be removed or added before prompting you for a yes or
>> no
>> response, unless you use the -y option.  Also, either one with
>> the "upgrade" option won't remove anything.  But yes, it's not uncommon
>> to
>> find a non-ubuntu .deb package forcing you to remove ubuntu packages.  If
>> that happens, you're probably best off to use "apt-get source" to get the
>> source package and build it to match ubuntu.
> 
> Where can I find more information on that? I'm googling in another tab
> as we speak. I'll near certainly use apt-get source. Thanks.

I knew you'd ask...

I'm nowhere near being an expert - I think I've done it once.  The key is
that you need the "dpkg-dev"  package.  I think that should install what
you need (it certainly will with aptitude - because that installs
the "recommends" packages - with apt-get you may need to install a C
compiler).

Search this newsgroup for "dpkg-buildpackage" - the last time I used it was
after somebody described the steps here.
-- 
derek