[off-topic, Xen's sharp reproofs] How to tell which version of a application is running

[Xen]

Ralf Mardorf schreef op 18-04-2017 10:32:

> You ignore that I replied to Karl's mail from Tue, 18 Apr 2017 09:42:01
> +1000:
>> - run "sudo apt-get purge tracker"
> 
> He suggested this to ensure that the OP's install is less dirty, since
> people doing dirty hacks often forget what they did after a while and
> run into issues soon or later.

Just because Karl made a bad suggestion doesn't mean yours are any good.

> Unfortunately it's much likely that the OP has got hard dependencies to
> "tracker" related packages, at least by a meta-package, so purging 
> might
> not work or could become much confusing work as well.

Of course.

> I can only repeat what I already pointed out, the OP either keep it the
> way it is now, but then the OP shouldn't be surprised, if the install
> gets broken one day after an upgrade and I shpuld add, that then,
> nobody remembers this hack, getting help from a mailing list or forum
> becomes much more complicated, if some issue should occur.

This is pretty much nonsense to begin with. But more importantly the 
upgrade can only overwrite the currently installed packages with 
something very similar (ie. some bugfixes or security updates). It is 
not possible that his /usr/local/bin package is suddenly going to 
conflict with an already existing package that changes only mildly, if 
the only file that could be overwritten has been dpkg-diverted (I follow 
your word on this).

So you are speaking plain nonsense.

You really shouldn't ask people to do complicated and difficult things 
as solutions to simple problems.

Either "mv /usr/bin/tracker /usr/bin/tracker.backup" + your dpkg-divert 
command, or installing a version from Yakkety, are the simplest 
solutions that work perfectly.

> This thread is cluttered with unneeded comments from you, like this
> one, I'm replying, too or e.g. this one from Tue, 18 Apr 2017 09:30:14
> +0200:
>> Regardless to then give credit to the other person that not only
>> responds after me but who responds an hour later with basically the
>> same suggestion

Yes if someone criticizes your bad advice that can only cause people a 
lot of headaches because you like them to suffer in some way, I don't 
know, that is "unneeded" because you would rather go on with giving 
advice in terms of "follow these 1000 steps, even though another 
solution would suffice".

If that is the Arch way, then no, I don't want it.

> Remove all clutter you caused and read all advice within their context,
> then it's not that confusing and endless as you claim. Some advices
> might not be well phrased, since English isn't everybody's native
> language, but those advices are still _very_ important.

You are asking new people to follow detailed and complex steps that even 
you can't remember.

Are you insane?