Access to available packages is setup via the menu entries for each package type under the menu.
Package Handler Panel
The top part of the panel has the Remote Host box which allows KPackage to operate on the packages on a remote computer, this functionality requires ssh and is only available when using Debian apt. The name of the remote computer is entered into the combobox and KPackage will access it when the Use remote host checkbox is selected.
The rest of the panel allows the enabling and disabling of the various package types that KPackage can handle. If a package type is enabled the button will bring up a dialog for setting the location of available packages. If the programs required for handling a package type is not available the package type will be automatically disabled.
RPM Location Dialog
For RPM packages KPackage can read a folder containing packages and add these to the package tree as either new or updated packages. It is possible to examine or install these packages from the package tree. By default the information about the packages is extracted from the standard format of the file names and so it is necessary to use the button to see the full description, it is possible though to set an option so that for local folders each package file is read, this is slower but gives a full description.
The RPM locations dialog allows the specification of folders containing RPM packages, it's divided up into a number of tabbed panels for convenience of management. Each line in the panel specifies a folder, the Use checkbox is selected the folder is used, otherwise it's ignored. The text entry field can take either a folder path or an ftp URL. The Subfolders checkbox determines whether subfolders are searched for packages. The button will pop up a folder selection dialog.
Debian Apt Location Dialog
APT: Debian means that Debian packages are handled using the deb-apt command which can automatically fetch packages from repositories and resolve dependencies.
The location of
uninstalled package repositories can be set in the "A" panel, this is
used to write the /etc/apt/sources.list
file
which controls where deb-apt searches for packages,
each entry corresponds to a line in the file, if the
Use checkbox is not set the line is commented
out.
The "D" panel allows the specification of folders containing Debian packages.
Debian DPKG Location Dialog: L and P panels
DPKG: Debian means that packages are handled using dpkg command, there are three ways of accessing available packages, these can be selected in three different types of location setting panels.
The "I" panel specifies the location of the Debian package tree and selects the distribution and architecture. KPackage will look in the standard places for the Package files describing the available packages and these packages are then added to the package tree and can be examined or installed
The "P" panel specifies the location of the Debian distribution along with the
Packages
files for the parts of the distribution that are of
interest. If the dselect program is being
used then the file /var/lib/dpkg/available
can be
used as a Packages
file that describes the distribution that
dselect uses.
The "D" panel specifies folders that are handled in the same way as with RPM packages.
Slackware Location Dialog
For Slackware packages there is very little information stored on
installed packages, but it is possible to use a
PACKAGE.TXT
file as a source of information about
the installed packages. The PACKAGES.TXT
file is
the equivalent of a Debian Packages file and Slackware distributions are
structured with a folder tree containing the .tgz
packages and a
PACKAGES.TXT
file that describes the
packages.
As with Debian distributions the packages in a Slackware distribution can be integrated into the package tree. Unfortunately the Slackware packages don't carry version information so it is not possible to tell with available packages are newer than installed ones.
The "I" panel is the location of a
PACKAGES.TXT
file which is used to provided information on
the installed packages
The "P" panels can be used to specify the location of
distributions with the folder tree containing the .tgz
files and the location of the corresponding
PACKAGES.TXT
file
The "D" panels are for folders that do
not have a corresponding PACKAGES.TXT
fi
le
BSD Location Dialog
For BSD packages KPackage will understand a
packages distribution folder that contains an
INDEX
file (which describes all the packages) and
also contains an All
folder (with all the
package files in it).
The "Ports" panel gives the location of the ports tree in the file system
The "Packages" panel allows the specifying the location of packages
folders i.e. those containing INDEX
files
For remote folders and package files (i.e. those fetched via
FTP) KPackage will do caching, the packages are by default cached in
~/.kpackage
and the folders in
~/.kpackage/dir
.
For the handling of remote (FTP) folders to work, it may be necessary to not have the FTP Proxy set in the Browser Settings.
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