How to tell which version of a application is running

[Xen]

Ralf Mardorf schreef op 18-04-2017 11:53:

> On Tue, 18 Apr 2017 09:57:03 +0200, Xen wrote:
>> NOT overwriting all files you can. By GOD. Stop this NONSENSE.
> 
> You are missing the context.

No amount of context will make what you say sensible.

I'm sorry, but that's the truth.

>> Dpkg-divert is still the way to go people, it was not my suggestion,
>> but it is.
>> 
>> So thank you for that Ralf but please don't move the goalposts here.
> 
> No, this isn't the way to go and the only reason that I reply to your
> rolling is to give a pinter to the right direction.

Which is something no novice user can complete without perfect guidance.

> The safest way is to build the new version of "tracker" the official
> Debian/Ubuntu way. Even this isn't absolutely safe, e.g. in regards to
> possible soname issues, an upgrade might break the "tracker" packages
> and/or other packages. _But_ taking the Ubuntu policy into account, if
> it works now without causing a soname issue, then it's nearly
> impossible, that this ever happens within an Ubuntu release.

So you are giving a solution that might work, or might not.

But theoretically it could be completely safe. But if the moon is in the 
wrong position in the sky, it might break again. So we need to deal with 
that thing too.

By the way, there will never be a newer version of Tracker in Xenial and 
you know that.

> As soon as a user does use third party packages or local packages,
> issues could appear. However, as long as not a complex dependency
> change is involved, which would be the case, if another release
> of e.g. GNOME would be required, it's nearly completely safe to rebuild
> packages the Debian/Ubuntu way. _Even_ if the self build packages
> should cause serious issue, the package management would give clear
> advices and it would be possible to e.g. replace them by the official
> packages.

You realize those packages already exist in Yakkety and Zesty right.

> To build the tracker packages, the OP could download the Ubuntu source
> package, replace the source code, but most likely could use the control
> and rules file of the Ubuntu source package.

Most likely. Not completely sure. We need to investigate.

Maybe in three month's time we'll have the solution.

> The steps are similar to
> 
> sudo apt-get source tracker # apt-get build-dep isn't needed, since the
>                             # OP already was able to build tracker,
>                             # but downloading and replacing the current
>                             # source with the alternative, newer source
>                             # is required
> libtoolize --force --copy --automake # mabye needed, maybe not needed
> aclocal                              # mabye needed, maybe not needed
> autoreconf                           # mabye needed, maybe not needed
> debuild -i -us -uc -b       # this is the important step to build the
>                             # packages
> 
> I don't have all the detailed steps at hand, but this is the easiest
> and most secure way. I more often build Arch packages, than Ubuntu
> packages, but I've got no doubts somebody else could help the OP to
> build the package.

I am not saying it is bad to have this information,

but that's a lot of maybes again there Ralf.

If you had your way with this this would turn into a month-long 
endeavour.

Life is not long enough to do these kinds of things.