The K Desktop Environment

3.3. Integrating uninstalled packages in the tree

Kpackage can deal with collections of uninstalled packages from RPM or Debian distributions.

For RPM packages Kpackage can read a directory 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 "Examine" button in Single select mode to see the full description, it is possible though to set an option so that for local directories each package file is read, this is slower but gives a full description.

For Debian packages packages directories can be handled in the same way as with RPM packages but it is also possible to use the Packages files that provide the directories for Debian distributions. The location of the the Debian distribution is specified along with the Packages files for the parts of the distribution that are of interest, those packages are then added to the package tree and can be examined or installed. If "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.

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 directory 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 uninstalled packages are newer than installed ones.

For BSD packages Kpackage will understand a packages distribution directory that contains an INDEX file (which describes all the packages) and also contains an All directory (with all the package files in it).

For KISS packages (which have names ending in .installer) , Kpackage can read a directory containing the packages and add these to the package tree.

For remote directories and package files (i.e. those fetched via FTP) Kpackage will do caching, the packages are cached in ˜/.kpackage and the directories in ˜/.kpackage/dir

NOTE: for the handling of remote (FTP) directories to work KFM must not have the "FTP Proxy" set in the Browser Settings.