Gentoo Questions

[Brett I. Holcomb]

> [ snips ]
> 
> On Sat, 07 Dec 2002 12:52:09 -0500 "Brett I. Holcomb"
> <bholcomb at intergate.com> wrote:
>> I had some time yesterday and spent it browsing the Gentoo web site
>> and came up with a question about the updates.
> 
>> how is the availablity of packages for Gentoo?
>> 
> 

> Several choices:
> 
> 1) If you like RPM, nothing prevents you from using it on gentoo (the
> disadvantages are multiple package databases and the fact that nobody
> is tailoring RPMs specifically for Gentoo).  You could also tinker
> with the debian tools to install debian packages, if you feel
> adventuresome.

Multiple databases is once of my concerns and why I askesd.
 
> 2) Download the tarball (or a binary package) and install it yourself.
>  Keeping track of hand-installed packages may be troublesome unless
> you use something like InstallWatch.  All you're doing here is a stand
> alone version of what emerge/ebuild does for you in an automated
> fashion.  You can also record what you've done in the portage system,
> so that subsequent ebuilds will be aware of the package.

I use checkinstall to create RPMs from tarballs now.  At least you can 
record it.
 
> 3) Join the gentoo user groups (do this anyway) and request that
> someone make an ebuild for the package.  This isn't very quick, but
> some of the developers are quite responsive.
> 
> 4) Do a little RTFM on the gentoo site and learn to generate an ebuild
> yourself (do this in combination with 2 above)  - not much more
> difficult than working with SRPMs, for example.  Then you can offer up
> the ebuild for general use and others will benefit.

This sounds like the best option if a package is not available.  I read the 
manuals and learned how to build SRPMs for Caldera.

 
> --
> Collins Richey - Denver Area
> Gentoo 1.4 system

-- 
Brett I. Holcomb
brettholcomb at R777charter.net
AKA Grunt <><
Registered Linux User #188143
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