Package compatibility

[ykgoh]

Many vendors test, package and support their Linux software for Ubuntu, maybe in .deb format.

May I know if they should work under Debian and Linux Mint too? Any complication?

 

[davidktw]

Many vendors test, package and support their Linux software for Ubuntu, maybe in .deb format.

May I know if they should work under Debian and Linux Mint too? Any complication?

everything comes with risk, even if they are packages from the distro repository. Packages dependencies are managed already, but it does not manage the correctness of each package.

sometimes things do break when you upgrade. that is why we have staging and non production environments for industrial standards

 

[ykgoh]

Hi David, I am approaching as an end user of software. Some Linux software vendors say that their software is supported on Ubuntu.

If I am running Debian or Mint, which are similar to Ubuntu, and I install the package. I think Ubuntu is still using the standard .deb package format thru apt-get? Should I expect it to work or fail most of the time?

 

[davidktw]

Hi David, I am approaching as an end user of software. Some Linux software vendors say that their software is supported on Ubuntu.

If I am running Debian or Mint, which are similar to Ubuntu, and I install the package. I think Ubuntu is still using the standard .deb package format thru apt-get? Should I expect it to work or fail most of the time?

Debian and Mint has their own repositories. You can use another repository, but when it comes to packages dependencies, you might end up installing something you already have from your own distro repo. "dep" is just package, it doesn't mean different systems must work properly even if they uses the same packaging management.

The compatibility ultimately boils down to libraries dependencies. If your program ABC dynamically link to a library XYZ.1.so, the package that contains program ABC will expect another package to deliver library XYZ.1.so. That's how the dependencies work, between packages. I don't think the package manager will resolve by knowing which package offers XYZ.1.so and hence calculate the dependency.

This is found in the FAQ of EPEL https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL...bility_with_other_third_party_repositories.3F

The same will applies for Mint, Debian and Ubuntu too.

 

[andr3wyong]

Hi David, I am approaching as an end user of software. Some Linux software vendors say that their software is supported on Ubuntu.

If I am running Debian or Mint, which are similar to Ubuntu, and I install the package. I think Ubuntu is still using the standard .deb package format thru apt-get? Should I expect it to work or fail most of the time?

In addition to what davidktw has stated, note that Debian, Ubuntu and Linux Mint have different approaches to configuration files location/naming as well as package names.

The Apache web server package is the best example of this, some distributions use a centralized httpd.conf file and name the service httpd, while other distributions split the configs into different folders and use a2enmod/a2dismod/a2ensite/a2dissite to manage them.

I think Debian and Ubuntu ideology on this has diverged (memory is a bit rusty as I am using Debian and Nginx mainly).

But basically if you are an end-user, I suggest not mixing and matching packages from differing distributions (e.g. CentOS/RHEL<>Fedora<>Mandriva too) because the packages will install, but the file locations and scripts may not adhere to the distro's ideologies and scripts (the distro's "way of doing things").

 

[ykgoh]

Thanks David and Andrew.

 

[Rock-kun]

In addition to what davidktw has stated, note that Debian, Ubuntu and Linux Mint have different approaches to configuration files location/naming as well as package names.

The Apache web server package is the best example of this, some distributions use a centralized httpd.conf file and name the service httpd, while other distributions split the configs into different folders and use a2enmod/a2dismod/a2ensite/a2dissite to manage them.

I think Debian and Ubuntu ideology on this has diverged (memory is a bit rusty as I am using Debian and Nginx mainly).

But basically if you are an end-user, I suggest not mixing and matching packages from differing distributions (e.g. CentOS/RHEL<>Fedora<>Mandriva too) because the packages will install, but the file locations and scripts may not adhere to the distro's ideologies and scripts (the distro's "way of doing things").

No need to go until so deep about distro-specific paths. Simplest way to make sure people don't mix packages from different distributions is to tell them that it breaks dependency resolution.

Anyway, i don't use binary packages for most end-user software. Building them from source and dumping the completed build into a centralized folder somewhere within my /home always works wonders.

 

[andr3wyong]

No need to go until so deep about distro-specific paths. Simplest way to make sure people don't mix packages from different distributions is to tell them that it breaks dependency resolution.

Anyway, i don't use binary packages for most end-user software. Building them from source and dumping the completed build into a centralized folder somewhere within my /home always works wonders.

mirror.0x.sg is on my LAN mah, hahaha.