Easy way to install packages?

flycast · 12-05-2006, 06:31 PM

I am new to debian and linux. I need to make sure that these packages are installed or install the following perl packages:

Quote:

Compress::Zlib
Archive:Zip
XML::RSS
File::RsyncP

I have confirmed that the Compress::Zlib is not installed. I tried apt-get install and that came up with a package not found. I have looked at cpan.org and have found the packages but there is a manual installation procedure.

Questions:

Is there an easy way to install?
If I need to install manually what directories do the compressed packages go into and what directories do the uncompressed packages go into?

truthfatal · 12-05-2006, 06:36 PM

Do you mean these packages?

Google "Debian perl [zlib,zip,rss,rsyncp]"

http://packages.debian.org/unstable/...ress-zlib-perl
libcompress-zlib-perl

http://packages.debian.org/unstable/...chive-zip-perl
libarchive-zip-perl

http://packages.debian.org/cgi-bin/s...ibxml-rss-perl
libxml-rss-perl

http://packages.debian.org/unstable/...le-rsyncp-perl
libfile-rsyncp-perl

matthewg42 · 12-05-2006, 06:48 PM

flycast: the apt-cache command can be used to search for available packages. With a little practise and creative use of grep, it's usually possible to narrow down results.

When I read your question, I used this command to search for the zlib perl module:

Code:

apt-cache search perl | grep -i zlib

..which returned a few results. Forgive me for not pasting them, I'm playing with debian via vmware and I didn't work out how to copy-paste between that and my main system.

This is my first port of call when trying to find a package which provides something I want.

Failing that, I might use the synaptic package manager to search. I prefer the command line tools because I find it faster to use them, but you should use whatever you're most comfortable with.

flycast · 12-06-2006, 06:41 PM

matthewg42:
This is what I get when I do the search you propose. Apparently, the correct package is not installed as the compression feature does not work in the software.

Quote:

debian:~# apt-cache search perl | grep -i zlib
libcompress-zlib-perl - Perl module for creation and manipulation of gzip files
libio-zlib-perl - IO:: style interface to Compress::Zlib

truthfatal:

I apreciate your reply. I can find the packages at CPAN.org but have only used apt-get to install packages. I do not understand how to install packages like this where the package needs to be compiler manually. I don't understand what folders to place the archive that I download in, I don't understand where in the file system to actually install to. Can you help me understand this?

matthewg42 · 12-06-2006, 06:51 PM

flycast: apt-cache search will just show packages which are available in the repositories you have set up in your /etc/apt/sources.list file. It doesn't show if they are installed or not. Once you know the package name you're interested in, you can check to see if it's installed with:

Code:

dpkg --list libcompress-zlib-perl

This will list any matching packages if they are installed. You can use wildcards in dpkg --list commands, but make sure you quote them to prevent wildcards matching file names in your current directory, e.g.

Code:

dpkg --list '*zlib*'

If you don't have the libcompress-zlib-perl you want installed, it's easy to install it:

Code:

apt-get install libcompress-zlib-perl

And that will download and install the package.