Re: Debian/Ubuntu apt package instead of tar.gz?

[Gerrit Pape <pape@smarden.org>]

On Tue, Nov 29, 2005 at 05:14:15PM -0500, Lloyd Zusman wrote:
> I have some questions about the Debian/Ubuntu runit package.
> 
> Does anyone know how much of a time lag there usually is between the
> release of a new runit-x.y.z.tar.gz on the runit web site and the
> updates of the Debian and Ubuntu apt packages for the same software?

I don't know about ubuntu, but the Debian package I maintain myself.
Normally it's available in Debian/sid nearly at the same time as the
tarball, as long as we're not preparing a new release, and the current
Debian/testing isn't frozen.

> I'm wondering if it's worth blowing away my tar.gz installation of runit
> on my Ubuntu machine and redoing it via apt.

Using the Debian packages helps with dependencies, there're some *-run
packages that automatically set up runit services, and depend on the
runit package (e.g. socklog-run, bincimap-run, bcron-run, ...).

> Also, will an apt installation use different install directories than
> the default tar.gz build?

As Debian adheres to the FHS, it doesn't install into the /package/
hierarchy, but into /sbin/, /usr/bin/, ...

> If the directory structure of the installed software is the same for
> both types of installations, then I wouldn't need to blow anything away
> before re-installing from apt.
> 
> And finally, one more question: I know that the runit apt package
> doesn't replace init, but I can't tell whether it installs itself into
> inittab as described on the "runit - use with traditional init" web
> page.  Does it do so?

Yes it does, and for replacing sysvinit, there's the runit-run package,
try
 $ apt-cache show runit-run

Regards, Gerrit.