Comments on deb-support-without-dpkg.patch

[Pavel Tsekov <ptsekov gmx net>]

Chan
On Mon, 6 Feb 2006, Pavel Tsekov wrote:

> > deb-support-without-dpkg.patch
> >     For systems withoput dpkg (almost any non-debian OS).
> >     It handles .deb files as regular .ar archives, as they are in reality.
>
> This would be nice addition. Only if we could avoid the 'O' option of gnu
> tar... Does anyone know of a way to avoid it ? In any case I think this
> patch is worth adding.

This patch although useful has certain drawbacks and I don't think it is
ready to replace the use of dpkg as-is.

1) To use the patch one has to install development tools (i.e. binutils).
This is not a major problem but it is still annoying - especially for
non-developers.

2) "Open=%cd %p#uar" differs in behaviour from "Open=%cd %p#deb" - in my
opinion "Open=%cd %p#deb" is better. However, the "deb" script may be
modified to use "ar" when it detects that "dpgk" is missing. I think this
would be the best thing to do.

3) The View command is highly unportable.

Are you willing to improve your patch ?