Why is apt better than rpm?
On rpm based Linux systems, if you want to install a new application that requires other "dependencies" to be installed first, you have to manually install the dependencies yourself. Even supposedly easier-to-use tools such as Kpackage don't automate the process of fetching dependencies, but apt-get does so nicely.
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Is that all?
No, apt-get's capabilities go far beyond simplifying installation. Most notable is an option that updates your system by comparing the release levels of the software on your system to those of a remote benchmark site. This process can be automated as much or as little as you like. For instance, you can choose to upgrade critical software--such as security--automatically, while being more selective about upgrading more conventional applications.
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Still not impressed?
Read the articles: "An RPM port of APT" and "APT beats RPM". If you are still not impressed, It's hopeless; stop further reading and continue updating your system(s) the way you're used to.
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Are all rpm problems eliminated?
No, the availability of apt-get doesn't eliminate all RPM-related problems (most notably Red Hat's tendency to make gratuitous and backward-incompatible changes in the RPM format).
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Why provide something new (apt-rpm) of something that is already there (apt-deb)?
Does apt-rpm violates the Linux Standard base?
No, apt-rpm does not violate the Linux Standard Base (LSB). Apt-rpm is an extra shell around the rpm packages, which provides additional functionality and better dependency administration.
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Is apt-rpm used during install time?
Only if the distribution you're using support apt-rpm. In case the distro does not support apt-rpm you need to setup the apt-rpm system, which you can do with aptate (part of the apt4rpm project).
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How come that apt-rpm provides a better dependency mechansim than rpm alone?
It seems that rpm does not use all information that is available in the rpm's. Rpm looks probably at a single package only, while apt-rpm takes the repository as a whole into account. It uses this information to determine and solve the dependencies.
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Can I continue to install rpm packages by myself ?
Yes, you can apt-rpm respects the rpms database.
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Is it necessary to execute a configuration tool after the apt-rpm has installed packages?
Depends on the distribution you're using. In case of SuSE
it might be that /sbin/SuSEconfig needs to be executed after a
succesfull update.
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Is a network connection established when
apt-get is being executed?
It depends what has been defined in the /etc/apt/sources.list config
file. If remote uri's (ftp, http) have been configured a remote
connection will be established to sync the server and client
repository information.
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Is there a graphical frontend available for apt?
There is a graphical frontend available called,
synaptic.
It can be downloaded from the various apt-rpm
repositories.
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What changes for distributors providing rpm packagers?
Distributors need to setup and support a directory structure that
fits in the apt-rpm structure. This repository contains just the
standard rpm's. The repository may consists of links to the
corresponding rpm packages at the currently in use repository.
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What changes for developers providing rpm packagers?
Developers who want to share their application(s) with others via
apt-rpm, place it just on the web like usual. It can now be
installed using apt-get update <uri>. The nice thing is that
each dependend package for this application is now automatically
downloaded, if it can be found on the provisioned download locations
(including DVD, CD, HD, etc. (as specified in /etc/apt/sources.list
file)).
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Are there comparable applications available?
Yes, there are:
urpmi from
Mandrake. For a nice comparison of all the package mngt systems
have a look at the section called "APT and RPM" in the article:
"An RPM port of APT".
Nice to mention here, is that there is something similar for solaris
as well: pkg-get
or pkg-utils
supporting Solaris, HP-UX, Irix, Tru64, rpm and Aix.
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Are there any drawbacks?
For end users there aren't really. Maybe for businesses there are.
As it so easy to update or even upgrade a sytem it might be that less
number of copies of a distributor's release are being sold. However,
if the distributor does not provide an easy way to update the system
end users may switch to another distribution, supporting apt, apt-rpm,
urpmi, etc. This lowers the number of sold copies as well....
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Can apt be used at non Linux operating system?
Apt has been written fairly independent of the underlying package
management system, it's available on solaris as well e.g.
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Is apt-rpm being used with Red Hat?
There is news about some people successfully using apt-rpm under Red Hat 6.x to manage a large network of machines, with a custom and internal repository of packages. There are also some interesting reports of people having upgraded RH 5.2 or RH 6.x to Conectiva 6.0, after a little manual adjustments of some packages. (see here)
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What about RPM 4 (Red Hat 7.x)?
Apt-rpm works with RPM 4, the latest version of apt-rpm relies on
RPM-4.
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Where are the available apt-rpm repositories listed?
Look at: Apt-rpm repositories
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How is Debian's "dpkg" related to rpm?
dpkg is a tool to install debian packages, at an rpm system
the tool "rpm" does the same.
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How is Debian's "dselect" related to rpm?
dselect is a tool that operates (1 level) above dpkg. At an rpm
system there is not 1 common tool that does the same. At SuSE this
might be YaST2. Perhaps that kpackage can be compared to dselect as
well.
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What is the minimal size for the filesystems; / and /var
Remark: / and /var are seperate filesystems as well as: /boot, /home,
/opt, /tmp, and /usr.
Filesystem / must be able to contain at least 2 rpm kernel packages,
when using SuSE it seems that 150MB is sufficient.
Filesystem /var must hold many rpm packages when e.g. a dist-upgrade
is being performed. When using a regular SuSE setup one may end up
downloading up to 400MB! Your /var filesystem must be able to hold
all this for a smooth operation of apt.
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How to get rid of the message: "All your base
are belong to us!!"?
Delete the last echo command in the file /usr/bin/genbasedir.
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I'm getting the error msg: "Error in server response, closing control connection", what's wrong?
You're probably behind a firewall. Use the tag <add_arg> in
apt4rpm's mirrorfile and include the wget argument --proxy=off or
--passive-ftp. Or specify user wide; in this case add the line
"passive_ftp = on" to ~/.wgetrc, or to /etc/wget.
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Is it possible to prevent packages to be updated
automatically?
Yes, it is possible to "hold" packages. Use the configuration
variable Hold (apt-0.5.4) or HoldPkgs (apt-0.3.19)
in /etc/apt/apt.conf. E.g. as follows:
RPM
{
Hold {
"k_deflt";
"inews";
};
}
Check the current settings with "apt-config dump".Why does apt upgrade almost every installed
packages (SuSE)?
This happens when the system has been installed using the packages
that have delivered with "the boxed" version of the distribution
and the system is then synchronized using the apt server. SuSE e.g.
is "recompiling" the packages when they are put on the server.
So most of the times it is only a minor number update of the package.
To workaround this leave out the component "base" in the
/etc/apt/sources.list file. Sometimes there is a Ximian component
as well, leave this one out as well as it does not mix very well
with the suse version numbering.
There is another strategy possible as well, start with only 1
component in the /etc/apt/sources.list file. This could be the
security component e.g. It is now possible to slowly extend the
number of available components.
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Why do I get the error msg: Unable to fetch file,
server said....?
The scenario is as follows:
dar:/var/cache/apt/archives/partial # apt-get install kdebase3 Reading Package Lists... Done Building Dependency Tree... Done The following NEW packages will be installed: kdebase3 0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove(replace) and 13 not upgraded. Need to get 17.0MB of archives. After unpacking 34.9MB will be used. Get:1 ftp://ftp.gwdg.de SuSE/7.3-i386/kde3 kdebase3 3.0-7 [17.0MB] Err ftp://ftp.gwdg.de SuSE/7.3-i386/kde3 kdebase3 3.0-7 Unable to fetch file, server said '/pub/linux/suse/apt/SuSE/7.3-i386/RPMS.kde3/kdebase3-3.0-7.i386.rpm: No such file or directory. ' Failed to fetch ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/suse/apt/SuSE/7.3-i386/RPMS.kde3/kdebase3-3.0-7.i386.rpm Unable to fetch file, server said '/pub/linux/suse/apt/SuSE/7.3-i386/RPMS.kde3/kdebase3-3.0-7.i386.rpm: No such file or directory. ' E: Unable to fetch some archives, maybe try with --fix-missing?
What went wrong? The rpm mirror synched to a newer rpm version of
kdebase3, while the apt repository has not been recreated yet.
The kdebase3 package was updated to: kdebase3-3.0-16.i386.rpm while
apt was looking for version 3.0.7.
This can be checked by ftp'ing into the server, e.g:
ftp ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/suse/apt/SuSE/7.3-i386/RPMS.kde3/
and execute an "ls" in this directory. Change Directory (cd) to the
linked directory. Do again an "ls" and check the output...
How do to execute a post install script from apt-get?
This requires a change to apt.conf file and a wrapper around rpm.
First add the following lines to apt.conf:
Dir
{
bin
{
rpm "/usr/bin/aptrpm";
};
};
SystemConfig
{
KernelPkg k_deflt;
BootMgr /sbin/lilo;
}
This will execute the script
/usr/bin/aptrpm (aptrpm-1 in the cvs repository).
instead of /bin/rpm. In this script all kind of actions can be
programmed. The actions can make made configurable by adding more
attributes to the apt.conf file.
This is just an example, it is up to your fantasy to do whatever you
you want it to. If you think it is interesting for others, please let
us know, we can make it part of the apt4rpm project!
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How does APT deal with interrupted downloads?
The download will continue at the same bit of downloaded file that was
interrupted.
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Synaptic hangs
The reason could be that the file /root/.synaptic/filter is corrupted.
The original file size is about 2.5kB. If it is much bigger
it's already a good indication that the file is corrupted.
If the command "cat -vt /root/.synaptic/filter" results in
strange/unexpected output, as shown below, remove the file and restart
synaptic. Synaptic should work now (and if not execute "strace synaptic"
to debug the problem).
If the next error is "could not open RPM database:cannot get exclusive
lock on database", than check with "lsof | grep rpm" or with
"lsof | grep lock" if rpm or synaptic are locking the file. It's now
possible to kill the process that locks the rpm database.
If this sounds too complicated just reboot your system...
Than if all of this does not help, the command "rpm --rebuilddb" might
help you to get rit of the problem...
linux01:~/.synaptic # cat -vt filters.old | head -100 | tail -20
};
filter "Broken" {
section {
inclusive false;
sections {
};
};
status {
flags 0x4;
};
pattern {
patterns {
};
};
priority {
};
};
filter "Search
Filter^@^@^@^X^@^@^@A^@^@^@pM-4^Z^H^@pR@@^R^L^H^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^E^P^H
^R^L^H^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^R^L^HM-^?M-^?M-^?^?M-`^Q^L^H`@l@A^@^@^@PM-^C^Q^H^@pR@@^R^L^H^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^F^@^@
^R^L^H^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^R^L^H^A^@^@^@M-`^Q^L^HM-X^E^P^HA^@^@^@M-XM-X^X^H^@pR@@^R^L^H^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@
^R^L^H^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^R^L^H^H^@^@^@M-`^Q^L^HM-`M-Ib@A^@^@^@
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Is it possible to force apt-get to ignore dependency
checks for certain packages?
There's a hack which allows that. But before telling you the trick,
let me include a disclaimer:
Ok.. if you have a strong heart, and are still reading, the trick is
an option in apt.conf:
RPM
{
Fake-Provides { "foo"; "bar 1.2"; };
}
This will "provide" the dependencies "foo" and "bar" version 1.2.
You've been warned! :-)
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Yes, it is possible. Have a look at apt_preferences man page.
As an example, I have "replaced" a Mandrake Linux with a Conectiva
Linux recently. To do that, I've introduced the following lines at
/etc/apt/preferences:
Package: *
Pin: release o=Conectiva
Pin-Priority: 1001
Then, everytime I tried to install a package, Conectiva Linux ones
had precedence. The interesting part is, when Conecitva's package
had a lower version, apt downgraded (!!) it (because priority
is < 1000).
More about pinning packages can be found
here.
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Why is version 1.0.1 not considered newer than
1.0pre/1.0rc? Or pinning a package version.
Imagine that your distributor releases a package with a wrong version
scheme. An example of such a version is: bayonne-1.0pre2. If the
successor of this package is released and is named bayonne-1.0.8, apt
(and similar tools) are not able to determine that 1.0.8 is newer than
1.0pre2 if using normal algorithms. How to deal with this? Use the
pinning rule displayed below in the file /etc/apt/preferences;
Package: bayonne
Pin: version 1.0.8*
Pin-Priority: 1001
After installing the package the pin can be removed as most likely the
correct versioning scheme will be used.
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How to transfer rpm arguments via apt to rpm?
For example you want to install an older rpm package (older than the
one already installed) with apt, but apt/rpm won't let you normally do
that. Never the less by specifying the argument
"-o rpm::options::=--oldpackage" the package will be installed by apt.
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How to define allowed duplicated packages?
Use the option:
RPM {
AllowedDupPkgs {"^kernel$"; "kernel-smp";};
}
in /etc/apt/apt.conf.
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Synaptic complains about a missing file
/etc/apt/preferences
Create the file yourself by executing:
$ touch /etc/apt/preferences
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Is it possible to provide an apt repository via
a public not privately owned web server?
Yes, it is the procedure for a small repository is described
here.
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Error: failed dependencies
If you're getting an error report similar to the one below:
Executing RPM (-Uvh)...
error: failed dependencies:
mod_ssl = 2.8.10-39 | mod_ssl = 2.8.10-47 is needed by
mod_ssl-2.8.10-57
E: Sub-process /bin/rpm returned an error code (1)
it means that apt is about to install a prpm (patch rpm), while the
the rpm that needs to be patch is not installed. Remove the component
that provides the prpm from your sources.list file and execute the
apt command once more. This time it is probably succesfull.
In case the apt repository is build with aptate, all prpm's are stored
in a component with the suffix "-prpm".
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How to rsync an apt repository build up with links?
The command to use is:
rsync -r -u --size-only --delete --copy-links rsync://.... <dest dir>
For example:
rsync -r -u --size-only --delete --copy-links \
rsync://ftp.okna.fr/pub/linux/suse/apt/SuSE/8.0-i386/ /apt/suse/update/8.1-i386/
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This error message, from the spawned rpm process, informs you that
a file will be delivered by a different package. It is up to you to
decide to accept this change or not. More often than not it is okay
to accept the change. If you think the change is
acceptable use apt --force-rpm <the action to be performed>
to have the new package accepted.
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