Problem with Package Management list

[Derek Broughton]

SPS Khokhar wrote:

> My applicaton-list is not uptodate, while my friends application-list is
> updated, Now the problem is that we cann't exchange packages.
> 
> I cann't install man-pages, samba server etc, while he cann't install the
> version of kdevelop that i h'v. instead package management ask for
> downloading from internet and not from /var/cache/apt/archive.
> 
> This means if i download a application, save its .deb files, uninstall it,
> and then after updating my application-list from internet i can never
> reintall that same application from local media if it's higher version is
> available.

No, it doesn't.
> 
> This is wrong, 

If I had a nickel for every time somebody said Ubuntu was "wrong" because
they don't know how to use it "right", I could retire and ignore people
saying things like that...

> cann't i reinstall my favourate old version application via 
> command line with all of its dependencies or NOT (ie i always h'v to
> download it from internet again and again) ????

1) If you "save it's .deb files" anywhere but where it was downloaded
(/var/cache/apt/archives), it's mostly true that you can't reinstall it
_with dependencies_ (though you can usually use "dpkg -i" to install the
individual package, then "aptitude -f install" to fix the dependencies). 
Either rely on the package cache (that is, never run "aptitude clean" -
either manually or automatically), or something like apt-move which creates
a local partial mirror.

2) If "apt-cache policy <PACKAGE>" shows a local copy of <PACKAGE>, then you
can reinstall that version - no matter what version it is.  
  # aptitude install <PACKAGE>=VERSION
will do the job.
-- 
derek