> hi, > > a friend of mine has some questions regarding debian. hope you guys > could help me answer them :) > > 1) does 'apt-get upgrade' upgrades: > i) the kernel, > ii) base apps > iii) local apps (/usr/local) >
I'm probably not an expert here, but... apt-get upgrade will typically not upgrade the kernel. base apps - yes /usr/local apps, I doubt it will since I don't think there's any files there that apt-get cares about. > 2) where does apt-get saves all it package information? > Somewhere in /var. Sorry for being stupidly vague, but I am not in front of a Debian machine right now. /var/apt? > 3) is there a way to just upgrade the local apps instead of all > local/kernel/base at the same time? if so what is the apt-get argument? > Not specifically. If you want to have certain applications at different version levels you can do this through the apt preferences file (man apt_preferences). In there you can set things in such a way as: everything is -stable except KDE* which is -testing except apache is fixed to 1.3.27 this will allow you to run most/all of your system under the -stable branch with the option that everything KDE goes to the -testing branch for updates. And apache is fixed to version 1.3.27 exactly. A neat side effect of this is once you find a KDE version that is stable and recent (assume something in -testing) you can "fix" your Debian system to follow that version so that when it is moved into -stable, you stick with it. Similary, and more often the case, you can find something that works in -unstable and lock in on that version until it's replaced by something higher in -testing. > 4) what do we do if we need to synchronize the package information > manually, say for some reason apt-get fails to include version > information on newly installed package; it's still using the old version > although the package has been overwritten by the latest version? > Never had this happen myself so I can't help you there. > how do debian define non-base apps? in the bsds, non-base apps which is > called local apps are those not part of the vendor-approved base > distribution. for example, apache13 is part of openbsd 3.4 base system > while apache2 isn't so if were i to deploy apache2, it would be defined > as local apps and be place in /usr/local. apache13, as opposed, is > placed in /usr. getting back to debian, say for an application that is > not part of debian base distribution, how do we go about getting apt-get > to upgrade them, or does debian does not segregate the definitions of > base/local apps? any program, (say postfix) that is installed regardless > whether it's in the debian-cd or some other sites are always be defined > as base apps or just apps, am i right? > A couple different options. You can build your own deb package for apache2 or apache may have available "dummy packages" which means it claims to satisfy the dependency without doing anything at all. Kind of like a null function. HTH -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]