Python installing on Debian

[Haim Ashkenazi]

Ryan Spencer wrote:

> On Mon, 29 Mar 2004 03:43:25 +0200, Haim Ashkenazi wrote:
> 
>> It's a very bad idea to install self-compiled applications to the same
>> prefix as the ones from original packages. this can breake many things on
>> your computer. what you have now is a semi-broke python installation, and
>> a package that tries to install itself every time you run apt-get but
>> fails.
>> 
>> I think your best chance to "clean" things would be to uninstall every
>> python2.3 package on your system (see what happenes when you run 'apt-get
>> remove --purge python2.3'). but make sure you understand what you're
>> doing (e.g. do you really want to purge your zope installaion? do you
>> have important stuff there, do you know how to restore it?). then if
>> there's still stuff in /usr/lib/python2.3 and /usr/local/lib/python2.3
>> check that they don't belong to any package (with dpkg -S filename) and
>> remove them. also check if you have a python binary in /usr/local/bin and
>> delete it. then re-install all the python2.3 packages. this of-course
>> will make you lose all your self-compiled modules, so you'll have to
>> re-compile them. this is a long and messy job, but you got yourself into
>> this position. just make sure you understand what you're doing before
>> your doing it.
>> 
>> in the future I would recommend using the source from unstable to build a
>> package if you want a version newer then the one that exist in testing.
>> also use 'stow' when you're compiling sources. this will let you
>> uninstall self-compiled application easilly.
>> 
>> 
>>> 
>>> Thanks a lot,
>> 
>> good-luck (you'll need it) :(
> 
> It actually needn't be that messy. dpkg --purge'ing will only remove the
> package in question, whereas using a program such as debfoster and pruning
> the selected target package will remove all it's associate dependencies
> entirely eradicating it from your system, maybe leaving behind empty
> configuration folders in your home directory, but there's no fret for
> that those won't be taking up barely any space and you can always remove
> them later.
in my system 'apt-get remove --purge python2.3' wants to remove 401
packages. that's what I meant messy. you have to check that you didn't
change any system configuration file for any of the packages. and as a
rule, it's a good idea to understand what's you're doing. I've seen too
many times people following instructions and then discovering that nothing
works without knowing how to restore...

> And also, I wouldn't say installing certain packages would break
> much - although I wouldn't mark out the possibility of it happening in
> unstable and testing, I sometimes forget constant recorrection I had to
> go through. Possible replacement of certain library
> files for applications, but that's also an issue of whether or not the
> actual library file or application itself has issues, and that's a risk
> you take in using unstable and testing. For example, I have an Nvidia
> Geforce four and I would constantly have problems with glibc conflicting
> with my video card. If you wander through the debian newsgroups you'll
> notice many others have experienced the same problem, it's merely a
> question of the glibc's lack of testing - which is why it's in the testing
> phase of debian.
the problem happenes when you install self-compiled applications (with
configure, make, make install) under the same prefix. it may work without a
problem, but what if the package gets updated and deletes some of the
self-compiled files but not all of them. think of installing mysql4 under
'/usr' on woody, and then updating the mysql3 package. wouldn't you say it
will break things... :)

Bye
--
Haim