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Here's what I don't like about apt-get install on Debian. There is NO DOCUMENTATION. At least, not as far as I can tell. For example, "apt-get install phpmyadm

Here's what I don't like about apt-get install on Debian. There is NO DOCUMENTATION. At least, not as far as I can tell. For example, "apt-get install phpmyadmin"... and then what? It took me HOURS to figure out what to do next. There was no message saying, "Congrats, phpmyadmin has been installed in the following directory. Navigate to the following URL to start using it." Nothing. Or what about "apt-get install rails"? I have absolutely NO IDEA what that does. I would never build an application on that rails installation. Rubygems, on the other hand, is unbelievably easy. "gem install whatever" and then in your application "require whatever". What could be simpler?

metajack 18y ago
README.Debian in /usr/share/doc/PACKAGE-NAME usually has this information. Of course, some package maintainers aren't as nice as others in this regard. The problem is much simpler with Ruby packages since they have only one interface. Debian packages have many interfaces, and so it can never be as easy as that. I'll note that Debian/Ubuntu python packages work just as you expect: apt-get install python-twisted, then import twisted in your code.
TBBle 18y ago
And this is exactly what the FHS is for. Documentation for "blah" lives in /usr/share/doc/blah/. Simple and easy. As mentioned, Debian extends this by recommending a README.Debian to explain what differences from upstream documentation or defaults exist, and the rationale. For example, enjoy the simplicity of /usr/share/doc/phpmyadmin/README.Debian. It answers all your questions, and also makes mention of security concerns you may not have realised exist had you, for example, just extracted a copy of phpmyadmin into your web site. And now you have enough information to know what to do next with anything that you install using apt-get, Or yum, or rpm, or portage, or (I'm speculating here) autopackage for that matter.

metajack 18y ago

README.Debian in /usr/share/doc/PACKAGE-NAME usually has this information. Of course, some package maintainers aren't as nice as others in this regard. The problem is much simpler with Ruby packages since they have only one interface. Debian packages have many interfaces, and so it can never be as easy as that. I'll note that Debian/Ubuntu python packages work just as you expect: apt-get install python-twisted, then import twisted in your code.

TBBle 18y ago

And this is exactly what the FHS is for. Documentation for "blah" lives in /usr/share/doc/blah/. Simple and easy. As mentioned, Debian extends this by recommending a README.Debian to explain what differences from upstream documentation or defaults exist, and the rationale. For example, enjoy the simplicity of /usr/share/doc/phpmyadmin/README.Debian. It answers all your questions, and also makes mention of security concerns you may not have realised exist had you, for example, just extracted a copy of phpmyadmin into your web site. And now you have enough information to know what to do next with anything that you install using apt-get, Or yum, or rpm, or portage, or (I'm speculating here) autopackage for that matter.