[med-svn] [Debian Wiki] Update of "DebianMed/HowToGet" by TimBooth

Tue Aug 9 14:26:21 UTC 2011

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The "DebianMed/HowToGet" page has been changed by TimBooth:
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianMed/HowToGet?action=diff&rev1=6&rev2=7

Comment:
This is ready to link to the main page IMO

  = How To Get Debian Med Packages (aka. the user FAQ) =
  
+ The main emphasis of the Debian Med web pages hosted on this site is to provide information for developers and packagers.  If you are a user of Debian or Ubuntu and just want to make use of Debian Med packages then this page is for you.
-  ## A new page trying to explain to a non-developer how they can get the packages they find on the site.  I had this as a TODO item from Luebeck but never got round to it until now. ##
- 
- The main emphasis of the Debian Med web pages is to provide information for developers. If you are a user of Debian or Ubuntu and just want to make use of Debian Med packages then this page is for you.
  
  == Q. How do I find out what packages Debian-Med has available? ==
  
@@ -20, +18 @@

  
  == Q. What about Ubuntu? ==
  
- A. Debian Med packages automatically become part of Ubuntu, but this process takes time so the Ubuntu package will often be behind the one in Debian Sid.  As with Debian, new packages and non-critical updates are not added to an Ubuntu release after the release freeze (a month or so before the release date). And packages in the experimental section of Debian may not be acceptable for the Ubuntu main distributions.
+ A. Despite the name, this project is not exclusively about producing packages for Debian, and many packagers are involved with both Debian and Ubuntu.  Debian Med packages automatically become part of Ubuntu, but this process takes time so the Ubuntu package will often be behind the one you see in Debian Sid.  As with Debian, new packages and non-critical updates are not added to an Ubuntu release after the release freeze (a month or so before the release date). And packages in the experimental section of Debian may not be acceptable for the Ubuntu main distributions.
  
  The process for getting the packages into Ubuntu is the responsibility of the [[https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MOTU|Ubuntu MOTO developers]] and follows a [[https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuDevelopment/Merging|set procedure]] aided by the [[https://merges.ubuntu.com/|Merge-o-Matic system]] system.  Critical updates applied to already-stable releases are added separately in Debian and Ubuntu by the relevant local maintainers, but these are fairly rare among the packages maintained by Debian Med.
  
  To help the situation with Ubuntu packages being out-of-date, [[https://launchpad.net/~debian-med/+archive/ppa|Debian Med uses a Personal Package Archive on Launchpad]].  This allows any Debian Med developer to backport packages to any release of Ubuntu, making use of the Launchpad build system. But this is not automated and is not a priority for most packagers. You may need to ask for a specific package on the mailing list.
+ 
+ == Q. What about other Linux distros? ==
+ 
+ A. Due to fundamental technical differences between DEB packages and formats like RPM or Gentoo Ebuilds, the packaging work done by Debian Med does not translate easily to RedHat, Suse, CentOS, Scientific Linux, etc.  Therefore our efforts are not likely to be useful to users of these systems.  An exception is [[http://www.linuxmint.com|Linux Mint]] which takes the [[extended pool of packages|http://community.linuxmint.com/software/search]] directly from Ubuntu and therefore has all the same Debian Med software as the regular Ubuntu distribution.  You can also add [[https://launchpad.net/~debian-med/+archive/ppa|our PPA]] to a Linux Mint system ''[I need to check this is true - Tim]''.
  
  == Q. I want a package that isn't in the Debian Archive, or a newer version of one that is. What can I do? ==
  
  A. Supporting backports (newer packages to work on an older Debian or Ubuntu base) is something we do not currently do, but we recognise that this is a common need, especially given the rate of development of many scientific applications and the understandable tendency of departments to run a Stable OS platform (either Debian Stable or Ubuntu LTS) as opposed to Debian Testing.
  There are various ways you might try to get newer packages on your system.  These are not without their problems, and in many cases will be no easier than compiling from source, but may be useful for many people.
  
-  1. Install packages from the [[http://nebc.nerc.ac.uk/tools/bio-linux|NEBC Bio-Linux]] project.  Bio-Linux is a customised Ubuntu distribution produced by the NERC Environmental Bioinformatics Centre in the UK.  Some of these packages are backported from Debian while others are manually compiled or prepared from precompiled downloads.  Bio-Linux aims to have the most popular packages no more than a month out of date.
+  1. Install packages from the [[http://nebc.nerc.ac.uk/tools/bio-linux|NEBC Bio-Linux]] project.  Bio-Linux is a customised Ubuntu distribution produced by the NERC Environmental Bioinformatics Centre in the UK.  Some of these packages are backported from Debian while others are manually compiled or prepared from pre-compiled downloads.  Bio-Linux aims to have the most popular packages no more than a month out of date.
  
   1. Try installing packages from the newer Debian or Ubuntu release directly.  If the package installs cleanly then in theory it should work.  Packages can be downloaded from [[http://packages.debian.org|packages.debian.org]] or [[http://packages.ubuntu.com|packages.ubuntu.com]] respectively.  The downside is that some packages will not install cleanly due to missing dependency requirements, and even if the package installs you will miss out on automatic updates.
  
+  1. For Ubuntu users, try [[https://launchpad.net/~debian-med/+archive/ppa|our Launchpad PPA]] as mentioned above.  You can also [[https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+ppas|search Launchpad]] for packages of interest but be aware; they have no way to audit what gets uploaded on the site and so you should consider carefully before installing software from a PPA.
+ 
   1. Try doing the backport yourself, by building a source package into a binary DEB.  See the next question.
+ 
+ == Q. I'm running Debian Testing.  How long do I have to wait for package X to be updated? ==
+ 
+ A. If you use [[DebianTesting|Debian Testing]] you should bookmark the fantastic [[http://bjorn.haxx.se/debian|'Why is package X not in testing yet?']] page to see how your package is progressing.  This can report on any package in Debian.
  
  == Q. As a user, can I download anything directly from Debian Med? ==
  

