Upcoming Debian Releases

1997-06-24 Thread Brian C. White
The following message is a list of items to be completed for the upcoming
releases of Debian GNU/Linux.  If something is missing, incorrect, or you want
to take responsibility for one or more items, please send email to:
Brian White <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>


This document was last modified at Time-stamp:  <97/06/20 10:04:42 bcwhite>


If you're replying about some of the ideas mentioned in this document, it is
often wise to change the subject to reflect that idea.  This helps target
those people who are most likely to partake in discussions about it.

For each upcoming release, the name of the task and the person who has claimed
responsibility for it (or "???" if nobody) is listed.  An asterisk (*) in front
means the job has yet to be completed and must be done before that release can
be made "stable".  A dash (-) in front means it has not yet been completed,
but if not completed in time will just be pushed to the next release.  A
space means that the task has been completed.

Footnotes are indicated by "[n]" and give more information on that item.


If you know of packages that do not conform to any of these tasks, please
report it as a bug against those packages.  If that task is marked as critical
(i.e. with an asterisk "*"), then please let me know and I will mark the bug
as critical.

Critical bugs are those that you would seriously consider delaying the
upcoming release or removing that package from the distribution because
they are not fixed.


Upcoming Dates
~~
June 30, 1997   Bug reports against all non-libc6 packages.
July 1, 1997Bugs older than 9 months will be marked as overdue.
July 15, 1997   All uploaded libraries must depend on libc6.
July 31, 1997   All uploaded packages must depend on libc6.
August 1, 1997  Bugs older than 8 months will be marked as overdue.
August 31, 1997 All packages depending on libc[45] will be moved to contrib.
September 1,'97 Bugs older than 7 months will be marked as overdue.



Thoughts




---



Hamm (Debian 2.0)
~
* All packages are in the new package format.
* All packages in main distribution are compiled with libc6.
* Fix packages currently depending on 'libc5-dev'.
* Officially supports {i386,m68k,alpha,sparc} architectures (mips,ppc?).
* No more dependencies on obsolete virtual packages (X11R6, elf-x11r6libs, ...).
* No a.out executables anymore.
* Remove "--force-overwrite" flag from dpkg defaults
* Much improved dpkg/dselect.
* Use PAM within authentication programs [13]
* Link shared libs against other shared libs instead of static [14]
* Official Debian logo chosen.
- Fix remaining "overdue" bugs ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
- Appropriate pkgs should call "install-mime" in postinst ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
- Convert remaining a.out packages (???)
- configuring so non-ASCII characters work (???) [9]
- Make all web servers apply to Web Standard (cf. Policy Manual)
- Make all startup messages apply to the new standard
- Use ttyS* devices instead of cua* devices (???) [10]
- Packages to call "update-menu" in postinst ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) [11]
- Move config information from install scripts to "cfgtool" (???)
- Some sort of package-grouping mechanism for dselect
- New run-level layout (???) [12]
- No bug reports older than 9 months at release time



---



Footnotes
~

 9 - One of the things that most people outside the US and UK have to deal
 with is configuring everything so that non-ASCII characters and other
 locale specific stuff works right. For example, bash needs a ~/.inputrc
 so that you write åäö on the command line, instead of getting
 beeps. Emacs needs some other stuff.  -- Lars Wirzenius <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>


10 - /dev/ttySxx devices are fully POSIX-compliant TTY devices.  If you are
 only going to be using one set of tty devices, you should be using
 /dev/ttySxx.

 /dev/cuaXX devices are different from /dev/ttySXX in two ways --- first
 of all, they will allow you to open the device even if CLOCAL is not set
 and the O_NONBLOCK flag was not given to the open device.  This allows
 programs that don't use the POSIX-mondated interface for opening
 /dev/ttySxx devices to be able to use /dev/cuaXX to make outgoing phone
 calls on their modem (cu stands for "callout", and is taken from SunOS).

 The second way in which /dev/cuaXX differs from /dev/ttySXX is that if
 they are used, they will trigger a simplistic kernel-based locking
 scheme: If /dev/ttySXX is opened by one or more processes, then an
 attempt to open /dev/cuaXX will return EAGAIN.  If /dev/cuaXX is opened
 by one or more processes, then an attempt to open /dev/ttySXX will result
 the open blocking until /dev/cuaXX is closed, and the carrier detect line
 goes high.

 While this will allow for simple lockouts between a user usin

Upcoming Debian Releases

1997-06-17 Thread Brian C. White
The following message is a list of items to be completed for the upcoming
releases of Debian GNU/Linux.  If something is missing, incorrect, or you want
to take responsibility for one or more items, please send email to:
Brian White <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>


This document was last modified at Time-stamp:  <97/06/16 22:08:39 bcwhite>


If you're replying about some of the ideas mentioned in this document, it is
often wise to change the subject to reflect that idea.  This helps target
those people who are most likely to partake in discussions about it.

For each upcoming release, the name of the task and the person who has claimed
responsibility for it (or "???" if nobody) is listed.  An asterisk (*) in front
means the job has yet to be completed and must be done before that release can
be made "stable".  A dash (-) in front means it has not yet been completed,
but if not completed in time will just be pushed to the next release.  A
space means that the task has been completed.

Footnotes are indicated by "[n]" and give more information on that item.


If you know of packages that do not conform to any of these tasks, please
report it as a bug against those packages.  If that task is marked as critical
(i.e. with an asterisk "*"), then please let me know and I will mark the bug
as critical.

Critical bugs are those that you would seriously consider delaying the
upcoming release or removing that package from the distribution because
they are not fixed.


Upcoming Dates
~~
June 30, 1997   Bug reports against all non-libc6 packages.
July 1, 1997Bugs older than 9 months will be marked as overdue.
July 15, 1997   All uploaded libraries must depend on libc6.
July 31, 1997   All uploaded packages must depend on libc6.
August 1, 1997  Bugs older than 8 months will be marked as overdue.
August 31, 1997 All packages depending on libc4 or libc5 will be removed.
September 1,'97 Bugs older than 7 months will be marked as overdue.



Thoughts




---



Hamm (Debian 2.0)
~
* All packages are in the new package format.
* All packages in main distribution are compiled with libc6.
* Fix packages currently depending on 'libc5-dev'.
* Officially supports {i386,m68k,alpha,sparc} architectures (mips,ppc?).
* No more dependencies on obsolete virtual packages (X11R6, elf-x11r6libs, ...).
* No a.out executables anymore.
* Remove "--force-overwrite" flag from dpkg defaults
* Much improved dpkg/dselect.
* Use PAM within authentication programs [13]
* Link shared libs against other shared libs instead of static [14]
* Official Debian logo chosen.
- Fix remaining "overdue" bugs ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
- Appropriate pkgs should call "install-mime" in postinst ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
- Convert remaining a.out packages (???)
- configuring so non-ASCII characters work (???) [9]
- Make all web servers apply to /usr/doc/debmake/webstandard-3.0
- Make all startup messages apply to the new standard
- Use ttyS* devices instead of cua* devices (???) [10]
- Packages to call "update-menu" in postinst ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) [11]
- Move config information from install scripts to "cfgtool" (???)
- Some sort of package-grouping mechanism for dselect
- New run-level layout (???) [12]
- No bug reports older than 9 months at release time



---



Footnotes
~

 9 - One of the things that most people outside the US and UK have to deal
 with is configuring everything so that non-ASCII characters and other
 locale specific stuff works right. For example, bash needs a ~/.inputrc
 so that you write åäö on the command line, instead of getting
 beeps. Emacs needs some other stuff.  -- Lars Wirzenius <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>


10 - /dev/ttySxx devices are fully POSIX-compliant TTY devices.  If you are
 only going to be using one set of tty devices, you should be using
 /dev/ttySxx.

 /dev/cuaXX devices are different from /dev/ttySXX in two ways --- first
 of all, they will allow you to open the device even if CLOCAL is not set
 and the O_NONBLOCK flag was not given to the open device.  This allows
 programs that don't use the POSIX-mondated interface for opening
 /dev/ttySxx devices to be able to use /dev/cuaXX to make outgoing phone
 calls on their modem (cu stands for "callout", and is taken from SunOS).

 The second way in which /dev/cuaXX differs from /dev/ttySXX is that if
 they are used, they will trigger a simplistic kernel-based locking
 scheme: If /dev/ttySXX is opened by one or more processes, then an
 attempt to open /dev/cuaXX will return EAGAIN.  If /dev/cuaXX is opened
 by one or more processes, then an attempt to open /dev/ttySXX will result
 the open blocking until /dev/cuaXX is closed, and the carrier detect line
 goes high.

 While this will allow for simple lockouts between a user using a

Unresolved Overdue Bugs

1997-06-03 Thread Brian C. White


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TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] . 
Trouble?  e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .



Unresolved Critical Bugs

1997-06-03 Thread Brian C. White


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[EMAIL PROTECTED] . 
Trouble?  e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .



Upcoming Debian Releases

1997-06-03 Thread Brian C. White
The following message is a list of items to be completed for the upcoming
releases of Debian GNU/Linux.  If something is missing, incorrect, or you want
to take responsibility for one or more items, please send email to:
Brian White <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>


This document was last modified at Time-stamp:  <97/06/02 21:25:35 bcwhite>


***  ***
***   Release of Bo is IMMANENT!!!   ***
***  ***
*** Bo has undergone extensive testing and is now ready for release! ***
*** No new packages are  being allowed into "frozen".   Uploads into ***
*** "stable" must have an extremely good reason to do so and must be ***
*** approved by the testing group before actually being installed.   ***
***  ***


If you're replying about some of the ideas mentioned in this document, it is
often wise to change the subject to reflect that idea.  This helps target
those people who are most likely to partake in discussions about it.

For each upcoming release, the name of the task and the person who has claimed
responsibility for it (or "???" if nobody) is listed.  An asterisk (*) in front
means the job has yet to be completed and must be done before that release can
be made "stable".  A dash (-) in front means it has not yet been completed,
but if not completed in time will just be pushed to the next release.  A
space means that the task has been completed.

Footnotes are indicated by "[n]" and give more information on that item.


If you know of packages that do not conform to any of these tasks, please
report it as a bug against those packages.  If that task is marked as critical
(i.e. with an asterisk "*"), then please let me know and I will mark the bug
as critical.

Critical bugs are those that you would seriously consider delaying the
upcoming release or removing that package from the distribution because
they are not fixed.


Upcoming Dates
~~
July 1, 1997Bugs older than 9 months will be marked as overdue.
August 1, 1997  Bugs older than 8 months will be marked as overdue.
September 1,'97 Bugs older than 7 months will be marked as overdue.



Thoughts




---



Bo (Debian 1.3)
~~~
  Fix all remaining "release critical" bugs ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
- Fix 63 remaining "overdue" bugs ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
  Shadow password support ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
- Shared libraries should provide ".shlibs" files ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
- Appropriate pkgs should call "install-mime" in postinst ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
- Convert remaining a.out packages (???)
  Boot disks should contain drivers for more systems/cards (???)
  Integration of modules, kernel, boot-floppies, & pcmcia (???)  [1]
  Include the multi-thread support patch for the Objective-C runtime lib (???)
  Fix packages that break with new libc5.4
- Fix "installed size" entries in packages ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
- Improvements to 'dselect' ([EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED])  [2]
  Move all shared libraries into "libs" ([EMAIL PROTECTED])  [4]
  Move interpreters out of "devel" ([EMAIL PROTECTED])  [4]
  Add support for resolutions beyond 1280x1024 to X config utility (???)  [5]
- Package grouping to simplify install ([EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED])
  general "threading" policy (???)  [6]
  Fix pkgs referencing "/etc/site-start.el"([EMAIL PROTECTED])[7]
- configuring so non-ASCII characters work (???) [9]
  Base packages to be in new source format
- Make all web servers apply to /usr/doc/debmake/webstandard-3.0
- Make all startup messages apply to the new standard
- Use ttyS* devices instead of cua* devices (???) [10]
- Packages to call "update-menu" in postinst ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) [11]


Hamm (Debian 2.0)
~
* All packages are in the new package format.
* All packages in main distribution are compiled with libc6.
* Fix packages currently depending on 'libc5-dev'.
* Officially supports {i386,m68k,alpha,sparc} architectures (mips,ppc?).
* No more dependencies on obsolete virtual packages (X11R6, elf-x11r6libs, ...).
* No a.out executables anymore.
* Remove "--force-overwrite" flag from dpkg defaults
* Much improved dpkg/dselect.
* Use PAM within authentication programs [13]
* Link shared libs against other shared libs instead of static [14]
* Official Debian logo chosen.
- Move config information from install scripts to "cfgtool" (???)
- Some sort of package-grouping mechanism for dselect
- New run-level layout (???) [12]
- No bug reports older than 9 months at release time



---



Footnotes
~

 1 - Friday I used the boot floppies in the rex tree and I could load any
 modules (NFS being the show stopper).  In the Linux Journal review of
 Debian (Nov Issue), e

Unresolved Critical Bugs

1997-05-27 Thread Brian C. White
 9020: e2fsprogs- fsck.ext2: can't load library 'libcom_err.so.2'


--
TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] . 
Trouble?  e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .



Upcoming Debian Releases

1997-05-27 Thread Brian C. White
The following message is a list of items to be completed for the upcoming
releases of Debian GNU/Linux.  If something is missing, incorrect, or you want
to take responsibility for one or more items, please send email to:
Brian White <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>


This document was last modified at Time-stamp:  <97/05/23 17:29:19 bcwhite>


***  ***
***   Release of Bo is HOLDING for CRITICAL BUGS!***
***  ***
*** There is one remaining critical bug that must be resolved before ***
*** Debian 1.3 can be released.  That bug is #9020:  ***
***  ***
*** fsck.ext2: can't load library 'libcom_err.so.2'  ***
***  ***


If you're replying about some of the ideas mentioned in this document, it is
often wise to change the subject to reflect that idea.  This helps target
those people who are most likely to partake in discussions about it.

For each upcoming release, the name of the task and the person who has claimed
responsibility for it (or "???" if nobody) is listed.  An asterisk (*) in front
means the job has yet to be completed and must be done before that release can
be made "stable".  A dash (-) in front means it has not yet been completed,
but if not completed in time will just be pushed to the next release.  A
space means that the task has been completed.

Footnotes are indicated by "[n]" and give more information on that item.


If you know of packages that do not conform to any of these tasks, please
report it as a bug against those packages.  If that task is marked as critical
(i.e. with an asterisk "*"), then please let me know and I will mark the bug
as critical.

Critical bugs are those that you would seriously consider delaying the
upcoming release or removing that package from the distribution because
they are not fixed.


Upcoming Dates
~~
May 12, 1997Bo will be released

July 1, 1997Bugs older than 6 months will be marked as overdue (will be at
least 9 months old by the time Hamm is released).



Thoughts




---



Bo (Debian 1.3)
~~~
* Fix 1 remaining "release critical" bugs ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
- Fix 63 remaining "overdue" bugs ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
  Shadow password support ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
- Shared libraries should provide ".shlibs" files ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
- Appropriate pkgs should call "install-mime" in postinst ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
- Convert remaining a.out packages (???)
  Boot disks should contain drivers for more systems/cards (???)
  Integration of modules, kernel, boot-floppies, & pcmcia (???)  [1]
  Include the multi-thread support patch for the Objective-C runtime lib (???)
  Fix packages that break with new libc5.4
- Fix "installed size" entries in packages ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
- Improvements to 'dselect' ([EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED])  [2]
  Move all shared libraries into "libs" ([EMAIL PROTECTED])  [4]
  Move interpreters out of "devel" ([EMAIL PROTECTED])  [4]
  Add support for resolutions beyond 1280x1024 to X config utility (???)  [5]
- Package grouping to simplify install ([EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED])
  general "threading" policy (???)  [6]
  Fix pkgs referencing "/etc/site-start.el"([EMAIL PROTECTED])[7]
- configuring so non-ASCII characters work (???) [9]
  Base packages to be in new source format
- Make all web servers apply to /usr/doc/debmake/webstandard-3.0
- Make all startup messages apply to the new standard
- Use ttyS* devices instead of cua* devices (???) [10]
- Packages to call "update-menu" in postinst ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) [11]


Hamm (Debian 2.0)
~
* All packages are in the new package format.
* All packages in main distribution are compiled with libc6.
* Fix packages currently depending on 'libc5-dev'.
* Officially supports {i386,m68k,alpha,sparc} architectures (mips,ppc?).
* No more dependencies on obsolete virtual packages (X11R6, elf-x11r6libs, ...).
* No a.out executables anymore.
* Much improved dpkg/dselect.
* Official Debian logo chosen.
- Move config information from install scripts to "cfgtool" (???)
- Some sort of package-grouping mechanism for dselect
- New run-level layout (???) [12]
- No bug reports older than 9 months at release time



---



Footnotes
~

 1 - Friday I used the boot floppies in the rex tree and I could load any
 modules (NFS being the show stopper).  In the Linux Journal review of
 Debian (Nov Issue), explictly mentions this problem with 1.1 and it
 hasn't been solved yet :( -- Chris Fearnley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>


 3 - I.e.: say I just want to install a package for a single library-- bu

Unresolved Critical Bugs

1997-05-20 Thread Brian C. White
 9020: e2fsprogs- fsck.ext2: can't load library 'libcom_err.so.2'
 9127: seyon- seyon depends on X11R6 instead of xlib6
 9256: vrweb- Unresolved dependency report for vrweb
 9258: sgml-tools   - Unresolved dependency report for sgml-tools
 9259: j1   - Unresolved dependency report for j1


--
TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] . 
Trouble?  e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .



Upcoming Debian Releases

1997-05-20 Thread Brian C. White
The following message is a list of items to be completed for the upcoming
releases of Debian GNU/Linux.  If something is missing, incorrect, or you want
to take responsibility for one or more items, please send email to:
Brian White <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>


This document was last modified at Time-stamp:  <97/05/12 19:04:03 bcwhite>


***  ***
***   Release of Bo is HOLDING for CRITICAL BUGS!***
***  ***
*** There is one remaining critical bug that must be resolved before ***
*** Debian 1.3 can be released.  That bug is #9020:  ***
***  ***
*** fsck.ext2: can't load library 'libcom_err.so.2'  ***
***  ***


If you're replying about some of the ideas mentioned in this document, it is
often wise to change the subject to reflect that idea.  This helps target
those people who are most likely to partake in discussions about it.

For each upcoming release, the name of the task and the person who has claimed
responsibility for it (or "???" if nobody) is listed.  An asterisk (*) in front
means the job has yet to be completed and must be done before that release can
be made "stable".  A dash (-) in front means it has not yet been completed,
but if not completed in time will just be pushed to the next release.  A
space means that the task has been completed.

Footnotes are indicated by "[n]" and give more information on that item.


If you know of packages that do not conform to any of these tasks, please
report it as a bug against those packages.  If that task is marked as critical
(i.e. with an asterisk "*"), then please let me know and I will mark the bug
as critical.

Critical bugs are those that you would seriously consider delaying the
upcoming release or removing that package from the distribution because
they are not fixed.


Upcoming Dates
~~
May 12, 1997Bo will be released

July 1, 1997Bugs older than 6 months will be marked as overdue (will be at
least 9 months old by the time Hamm is released).



Thoughts




---



Bo (Debian 1.3)
~~~
* Fix 1 remaining "release critical" bugs ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
- Fix 63 remaining "overdue" bugs ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
  Shadow password support ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
- Shared libraries should provide ".shlibs" files ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
- Appropriate pkgs should call "install-mime" in postinst ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
- Convert remaining a.out packages (???)
  Boot disks should contain drivers for more systems/cards (???)
  Integration of modules, kernel, boot-floppies, & pcmcia (???)  [1]
  Include the multi-thread support patch for the Objective-C runtime lib (???)
  Fix packages that break with new libc5.4
- Fix "installed size" entries in packages ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
- Improvements to 'dselect' ([EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED])  [2]
  Move all shared libraries into "libs" ([EMAIL PROTECTED])  [4]
  Move interpreters out of "devel" ([EMAIL PROTECTED])  [4]
  Add support for resolutions beyond 1280x1024 to X config utility (???)  [5]
- Package grouping to simplify install ([EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED])
  general "threading" policy (???)  [6]
  Fix pkgs referencing "/etc/site-start.el"([EMAIL PROTECTED])[7]
- configuring so non-ASCII characters work (???) [9]
  Base packages to be in new source format
- Make all web servers apply to /usr/doc/debmake/webstandard-3.0
- Make all startup messages apply to the new standard
- Use ttyS* devices instead of cua* devices (???) [10]
- Packages to call "update-menu" in postinst ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) [11]


Hamm

* All packages are in the new package format.
* All base packages are compiled with libc6.
* Fix packages currently depending on 'libc5-dev'.
* Officially supports {i386,m68k,alpha,sparc} architectures (mips,ppc?).
* No more dependencies on obsolete virtual packages (X11R6, elf-x11r6libs, ...).
* No a.out executables anymore.
* Much improved dpkg/dselect.
- Move config information from install scripts to "cfgtool" (???)
- Some sort of package-grouping mechanism for dselect
- New run-level layout (???) [12]
- No bug reports older than 9 months at release time



---



Footnotes
~

 1 - Friday I used the boot floppies in the rex tree and I could load any
 modules (NFS being the show stopper).  In the Linux Journal review of
 Debian (Nov Issue), explictly mentions this problem with 1.1 and it
 hasn't been solved yet :( -- Chris Fearnley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>


 3 - I.e.: say I just want to install a package for a single library-- but I
 also want the developer version and the static version... As it 

mime-support 2.03-1 released

1996-09-25 Thread Brian C. White
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-

Format: 1.5
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 1996 12:01:22 +0400
Source: mime-support
Binary: mime-support
Architecture: source all
Version: 2.03-1
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: low
Maintainer: Brian White <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Description: 
 mime-support - MIME files 'mime.types' & 'mailcap', and support programs
Changes: 
 mime-support (2.03-1) unstable; urgency=low
 .
   * added "application/x-httpd-php" type
   * added defaults to install-mime prompts
Files: 
 a0e5cfd6eac6a01ee2333512adebbd5b 521 net standard mime-support_2.03-1.dsc
 6f6b4a69bf7e732732d2e9fa7f53fb0c 18487 net standard mime-support_2.03.tar.gz
 aac01bca992bf2012abdb678ff20018a 21288 net standard mime-support_2.03-1_all.deb

-BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-
Version: 2.6.2i

iQCVAwUBMkgadrwRa6IPcXgFAQHXAwP/fhUqBKRrNUcZlIsYDxQovVmkWE6Gcymt
EJksl4C0yg3bcvzZEWBkbunIHKGLCzAuZ54Q0IEP2HgbeJeB3v/EdGNqLbFalGt6
mtpMHnjpKXc1OvTT4ajUZFrl0BaZ1+HNB5IFOW4TzqX9oL6h4obzvQYCGrIcm8Pj
oe3WaXV+eAk=
=19L9
-END PGP SIGNATURE-




FTP to Master

1996-09-20 Thread Brian C. White
I am still unable to FTP to master.debian.org

  callandor:~/tmp> ftp master.debian.org
  Connected to master.debian.org.
  220 primer FTP server (Version wu-2.4(7) Thu Aug 1 02:34:14 MET DST 1996) 
ready.
  Name (master.debian.org:bcwhite): 
  530 User bcwhite access denied...
  Login failed.
  Remote system type is UNIX.
  Using binary mode to transfer files.
  ftp>

Could somebody please fix this?

Please don't tell me to telnet to master and then FTP back.  That would
require someplace to FTP back to.  Since I'm behind a firewall, I cannot
do that.
 
  Brian
 ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )
 
---
 Generated by Signify v1.00.  For this and more, visit http://www.verisim.com/




Bug#4490: Request for Entry: application/octet-stream exe

1996-09-14 Thread Brian C. White
> Downloads of .exe (DOS *sigh*) files doesn't work correctly
> without it.

What does it do otherwise?
 
  Brian
 ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )
 
---
 Searching for something?  Look to us!  http://www.verisim.com/ferret/





Changelog Format

1996-09-12 Thread Brian C. White
Could somebody please point me to the "changelog" file format?  I'm trying
to build the new 'dftp' package but it keeps dieing on the changelog file.

Please respond by email since I _still_ have not been able to subscribe to
this list.
 
  Brian
 ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )
 
---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.




signify 1.00-1 released

1996-08-31 Thread Brian C. White
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-

Date: 27 Aug 96 22:26 UT
Format: 1.6
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: Low
Maintainer: Brian White <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Source: signify
Version: 1.00-1
Binary:  signify
Architecture:  all source
Description: 
 signify: Autamatic semi-random signature generator
 -  Signify is a neat little program that allows a random signature to be
 -  generated from a set of rules.  Each section can be one of an unlimited
 -  number of possibilities, each with its own weighting so those really cool
 -  quotes can appear more often than others.  Sections can also be placed next
 -  to each other vertically to create columns.  Each section can be formatted
 -  independently as left/right/center and top/bottom/vcenter.
Changes:
 - First release of a new product!
Files:
 4bdd2f64ff7d892a5e66685944e89324  8728  mail  - signify_1.00-1.tar.gz
 000c7bad00dd13cee55e03b88fe064d0  8094  mail  optional  signify_1.00-1_all.deb

-BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-
Version: 2.6.2i

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dselect/dpkg & multiple versions

1996-08-29 Thread Brian C. White
I know that at one point the dselect/dpkg combination had fairly serious
problems if the same package name existed with multiple versions.  I learned
this the hard way when I installed from a mirror that had not run to
completion and thus had not deleted the older packages.

Dpkg installed _both_ versions of the packages at the same time and really
got screwed up.

The reason I bring this up is that there are now several package that are
_intentionally_ in the distribution multiple times with different versions:

  Debian-1.1-fixed/binary-i386/text/gs_2.62-2.deb
  non-free/binary/gs_4.01-2.deb

  Debian-1.1-fixed/binary-i386/text/gsfonts_2.62-2.deb
  non-free/binary/gsfonts_3.53-3.deb

  Debian-1.1-fixed/binary-i386/tex/lyx_0.9.23-1.deb
  contrib/binary/lyx_0.10.1-1.deb

These are already causing a bit of a problem with 'dftp' and I'm wondering
if they are/will cause problems with dselect/dpkg.


*** Bruce ***
What's the "official" word on duplicate packages this way?
 
  Brian
 ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )
 
---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.




Bug#4325: majordomo -- incorrect quoting of '@'

1996-08-28 Thread Brian C. White
Package: majordomo
Version: 1.93-3

The "request-answer" does not properly quote the "@" character (as required
by perl-5) it its outgoing mail.

The offending lines are:

  print MAIL <<"EOM";
  To: $reply_to
  From: $list-request
  Subject: Your mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  In-Reply-To: $in_reply_to
  Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

  This pre-recorded message is being sent in response to your recent
  email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


These should be changed to:

  print MAIL <<"EOM";
  To: $reply_to
  From: $list-request
  Subject: Your mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
  In-Reply-To: $in_reply_to
  Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

  This pre-recorded message is being sent in response to your recent
  email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]


  Brian
 ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )
 
---
  Want to get it together?  We can help!  http://www.verisim.com/coordinator/




Bug#4316: cron -- crontab -l prints excess header

1996-08-28 Thread Brian C. White
Steve Greenland wrote:
> > Would you mind stripping these first three lines from the "crontab -l"
> > output?
> 
> Yes, because I think there is useful information there (primarily
> the second line, with the file name (usually) and date).

Could you write them to STDERR and the rest of the info to STDOUT?


> Since it's in a script anyway, why not strip it yourself:
> 
>  crontab -l |sed -e '1,/^# (Cron version/ d'
> 
> (actually "sed -e '1,3 d'" would proably be sufficient.)

I thought about this, but it requries my script to know about the
internals of crontab.  If crontab ever changed, then a problem could
arise.  I prefer to keep related functionality as together as possible.


> I'm going to close this one.

Hold on just a sec...  Let's resolve how this is going to be handled,
first.
 
  Brian
 ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )
 
---
 the difference between theory and practice is less in theory than in practice





Bug#4316: cron -- crontab -l prints excess header

1996-08-28 Thread Brian C. White
Package: cron
Version: 3.0pl1-34

Running "crontab -l" has a bad habit of displaying header information
that is not actually part of the crontab.

For example:

$ crontab -l -u gnats
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - edit the master and reinstall.
# (- installed on Mon Jul 29 14:07:28 1996)
# (Cron version -- $Id: crontab.c,v 2.13 1994/01/17 03:20:37 vixie Exp $)
5,15,25,35,45,55 * * * * /usr/lib/gnats/queue-pr --run


Those first three lines do not appear when using "crontab -e" and they
cause problems if trying to modify the crontab using a script since
reading the crontab via "crontab -l", modifying it, and the sending
the changed data to "crontab" will end up with a duplicate header stored.
The output of "crontab -l" would then be something like:

$ crontab -l |  | crontab; crontab -l
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - edit the master and reinstall.
# (- installed on Mon Jul 29 14:07:28 1996)
# (Cron version -- $Id: crontab.c,v 2.13 1994/01/17 03:20:37 vixie Exp $)
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - edit the master and reinstall.
# (- installed on Mon Jul 29 14:07:28 1996)
# (Cron version -- $Id: crontab.c,v 2.13 1994/01/17 03:20:37 vixie Exp $)
5,15,25,35,45,55 * * * * /usr/lib/gnats/queue-pr --run


Would you mind stripping these first three lines from the "crontab -l"
output?
  
   Brian
  ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )
  
---
 the difference between theory and practice is less in theory than in practice





Re: dpkg & accidental overwrite of /usr/man/man1

1996-08-27 Thread Brian C. White
> >From what I understand, the directory should not be gone - just renamed.

Any idea what to?  I can't find it.  It's not a big deal as I had a
backup I could restore from.
  
   Brian
  ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )
  
---
 the difference between theory and practice is less in theory than in practice





dpkg & accidental overwrite of /usr/man/man1

1996-08-27 Thread Brian C. White
Eek!  I made a goof in a package I'm putting together and dpkg let me get
away with it.

The problem was that I saved a man page as "/usr/man/man1" instead of
the correct name "/usr/man/man1/manpage.1".  Dpkg noticed the conflict,
but went ahead and toasted the 'man1' directory anyway.

It seems dpkg still has the "--force" option enabled for files found in
multiple packages and so went ahead with the overwrite.

Can we remove this force?  Alternatively, could we make it so entire
directories can't be replaced by a single file?
  
   Brian
  ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )
  
---
 the difference between theory and practice is less in theory than in practice




Bug#4297: msql 1.0.16 cannot connect to remote DBs

1996-08-26 Thread Brian C. White
Package: msql
Version: 1.0.16-2

When I try to run any of the msql programs, it fails to connect to remote
databases.  Connecting to these from a 1.0.14 client works fine.

$ relshow -h gate
Connect: Connection refused

Error connecting to database : Can't connect to MSQL server on gate

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.





msql 1.0.14 packages

1996-08-26 Thread Brian C. White
Does anybody have or know where I can find the msql 1.0.14 packages?
The newer ones don't seem to work (for me at least) at all.

Please respond by email or copy me on any reply as I have not been able
to resubscribe to the debian-devel list lately.  

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.




Re: Bug#4261: Ghostview and virtual package postscript_viewer

1996-08-25 Thread Brian C. White
> No, that isn't what should be done, or at least not the only thing.
> I'm on my way to produce a second posctscript-viewer (front-end to gs)
> called gv, that is in some ways much better than ghostview, though there
> are too many differences in the user interface to drop ghostview instead.

Yes, it _is_ what should be done.  "install-mime" handles multiple entries
for the same mime-type.  Thus, if both "ghostview" and "gv" get installed,
the user is given the choice of which is to have priority in the mailcap file.
Trust me, this will work.  It was designed to handle just this case.

Please see the "install-mime" man page for more information.

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.





Bug#4261: Ghostview -- needs MIME entry

1996-08-25 Thread Brian C. White
Package: ghostview
Version: 1.5-8

Ghostview should install itself into the /etc/mailcap entry so mime
compatible programs can use it to view postscript documents.

I suggest making ghostview "Recommends: mime-support" and adding the
following to the install scripts:

debian.postinst
~~~
if [ -x /usr/sbin/install-mime ]
then
  install-mime  --install --package=ghostview --content=application/postscript \
--description="Postscript Formatted Output" 
--nametemplate="%s.ps" \
--test='test "$DISPLAY" != ""' \
--view='/usr/bin/X11/ghostview %s' \
--comment="Ghostview is a fairly good front-end for viewing 
postscript \
   and should probably be given a reasonably high 
priority."
fi

debian.prerm

if [ -x /usr/sbin/install-mime ]
then
  install-mime --remove --package=ghostview
fi


For more information, please see the "install-mime" man page.

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.





dftp 2.0-1 released

1996-08-24 Thread Brian C. White
Date: 24 Aug 96 18:05 UT
Format: 1.6
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: Low
Maintainer: Brian C. White <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Source: dftp
Version: 2.0-1
Binary:  dftp
Architecture:  all source
Description: 
 dftp: Linux "Debian Distribution" Packages Maintainer
 -  The purpose of this program is to make it easy to keep your local
 -  installation of Linux consistent with the Debian distribution
 -  available on many FTP sites, NFS mounts, or CD-ROM.  It does this by
 -  comparing the list of installed packages with those available by FTP
 -  or at a specified directory.  A list of packages, categorized to make
 -  selection easier, is then presented to the user to choose what to
 -  install.  All selected packages are then fetched if necessary (using
 -  FTP), verified for correctness, and then installed.
 -  .
 -  Dftp can also be run on a non-Debian machine in the case where the
 -  Debian machine does not have FTP access.  For this, stand-alone
 -  versions of dftp, in both "csh" and "perl" source, are available under
 -  /debian/contrib/tools.
Changes:
 -  Now written in Perl (thanks to Robert Browning)
Files:
 da02e2da88461013aea6c083d8cebbe8  15951  admin -  dftp_2.0-1.tar.gz
 f9ee9efba75ecdd7a0bfaa574b3f787e  38863  byhand-  dftp_1.6.csh
 04671c397c049e49bde1f7f406f7aed9  44833  byhand-  dftp_2.0.pl
 057a4841d27b50ce44831a93b7469de5  14312  admin  optional  dftp_2.0-1_all.deb



Please place the ".csh" and ".pl" files in /debian/contrib/tools.
Also, please create the following links within that directory:

dftp.csh -> dftp_1.6.csh
dftp.pl  -> dftp_2.0.pl
dftp -> dftp.pl

Thanks!




Bug#4254: msql config problems

1996-08-23 Thread Brian C. White
Package: msqld
Version: 1.0.16-2


After upgrading from v1.0.14...


The /var/log/msql directory is:

drwxr-x---   2 operator msql 1024 Aug 23 15:11 /var/log/msql/

It should be owned by "root.msql" and have the permissions "775".


The /etc/msql.acl file is:

-rwx--   1 operator msql  300 Aug 23 15:08 /etc/msql.acl*

It should be owned by "msql.msql" and have the permissions "775".


*** The install script removed the existing "msql.acl" file I had made.
Good thing I make backups!


Fixing these and restarting using "/etc/init.d/msqld start" gives
the following error (repeatedly)...

>Subject:Minerva Daemon Crash Report
>   Date:Fri, 23 Aug 96 15:46 EDT
>   From:msql (Mini SQL Database Manager)
> To:root
>
>
>Program : msqld
>Time : Fri Aug 23 15:46:58 EDT 1996
>Program Output
>--
>
>
>Can't start server : UNIX Bind : Permission denied
>
>
>mSQL Server 1.0.16 starting ...


The unix socket is:

srwxrwxrwx   1 root root0 Aug 21 15:52 /dev/msql=

This should probably be owned by "root.msql", but shouldn't be the
cause of this problem.


Trying to stop these repeated message by doing "/etc/init.d/msqld stop"
gives the following error:

callandor:/etc# /etc/init.d/msqld stop
ERROR : Can't connect to local MSQL server
rm: /var/run/msqld/shutdown: Permission denied
rm: /var/run/msqld/shutdown: Permission denied

The shutdown file is:

-rw-r-   1 root root5 Aug 23 15:52 /var/run/msqld/shutdown

Since I ran the stop command as root, the only thing I can think of here
is that something is running as user/group "msql" and could thus not access
the shutdown file.

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.




netscape 3.0-1 (stable) released

1996-08-23 Thread Brian C. White
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-

Date: 23 Aug 96 20:02 UT
Format: 1.6
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: Low
Maintainer: Brian White <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Source: netscape
Version: 3.0-1
Binary:  netscape
Architecture:  i386 source
Description: 
 netscape: Popular World-Wide-Web browser software (installer)
 -  Netscape (pronounced "Mozilla") is a graphical World-Wide-Web browser
 -  with many features.  It supports advanced features of HTML and new
 -  technologies such as "Java" from Sun Microsystems.
 -  .
 -  Netscape Communications Corporation does not allow redistribution of
 -  their software.  Therefore, this package requires the user to fetch
 -  the netscape archive seperately and place it in the directory pointed
 -  to by the TMPDIR environment variable (or /tmp if TMPDIR not defined)
 -  before attempting to install this package.  You can get the linux
 -  packages via anonymous ftp from "ftp[1-9].netscape.com".
 -  .
 -  Do NOT try to install any version of Netscape other than 3.0 with
 -  this package!
 -  .
 -  Netscape Communications Corporation does not support the Linux release
 -  in the slightest, even for paying customers.  It has been made available
 -  purely as a courtesy, so please do not send them questions about Linux.
 -  .
 -  This installer package has been placed in the public domain!
Changes:
 -  STABLE release of Navigator v3.0
Files:
 bc8440a0ffec5282a5bcbca379ff0ffd  3843  net-netscape_3.0-1.tar.gz
 453d1b7a9d9be1c5065cf999bc1d080c  3472  net  extra  netscape_3.0-1_i386.deb

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Bug#4194: tar ajusts uid/mtime of symlink destination

1996-08-20 Thread Brian C. White
Package: tar
Version: 1.11.11-1

It seems the newest version of 'tar' sets (during extract) the uid/gid and
the mtime of the file a symlink points to instead of the symlink itself.


Here is a source directory:

-rw-r--r--   1 bcwhite  verisim  5731 Jul 21 16:02 database-gdbm.cc
-rw-r--r--   1 bcwhite  verisim  1114 Jul  7 00:27 database-gdbm.h
lrwxrwxrwx   1 bcwhite  verisim16 Jul 14 13:56 database.cc -> 
database-gdbm.cc
lrwxrwxrwx   1 bcwhite  verisim15 Jul 14 13:56 database.h -> 
database-gdbm.h


Here is output of 'tar' during extract:

ferret/database-gdbm.h
ferret/database.cc
tar: ferret/database.cc: Could not change access and modification times: No 
such file or directory
tar: ferret/database.cc: Cannot change mode to 0755: No such file or directory
ferret/database.h
ferret/database-gdbm.cc


The extracted directory has:

-rw-r--r--   1 bcwhite  verisim  5731 Jul 21 16:02 database-gdbm.cc
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bcwhite  verisim  1114 Jul 14 13:56 database-gdbm.h*
lrwxrwxrwx   1 bcwhite  verisim16 Aug 19 17:45 database.cc -> 
database-gdbm.cc
lrwxrwxrwx   1 bcwhite  verisim15 Aug 19 17:45 database.h -> 
database-gdbm.h*

(note the permissions of "database-gdbm.h")


Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.




Bug#2895: gnats passwd entry

1996-08-16 Thread Brian C. White
I'm starting to package the newest version of 'gnats' (currently in late
beta).  Could I get this resolved soon?

> The entry for the "gnats" userid is currently set to...
> gnats:*:21:100:uucp:/var/spool/uucp:/bin/sh
> 
> It should be...
> gnats:*:16:65534:Gnats Bug-Reporting System (admin):/var/gnats-db:/bin/sh
> 
> If the userid & group should be changed from what I have, please let me
> know.  The 'gnats' userid currently logs on with group "nobody" which
> should probably be changed -- maybe to "user"? "staff"? "root"? "gnats"?

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.




Bug#4164: Ferret extended description has blank lines

1996-08-15 Thread Brian C. White
> Ferret extended description field has four empty lines in it.
> The correct form is to have a single space followed by
> a single full stop character

Oops!  Okay, it'll be fixed in the next release (soon, hopefully).

By the way, for such tiny things, it's usually considered better
to just notify the maintainer instead of adding the overhead of
a full bug report.  If the maintainer doesn't fix it, then a bug
report should be submitted so it gets tracked.

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.





mime-support 2.02-1 released

1996-08-15 Thread Brian C. White
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-

Date: 15 Aug 96 17:23 UT
Format: 1.6
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: Low
Maintainer: Brian White <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Source: mime-support
Version: 2.02-1
Binary:  mime-support
Architecture:  all source
Description: 
 mime-support: MIME files 'mime.types' & 'mailcap', and support programs
 -  As these files can be used by all MIME compliant programs, they
 -  have been moved into their own package that others can depend upon.
 -  .
 -  Other packages add themselves as viewers/editors/composers/etc by
 -  using the provided "install-mime" program.
Changes:
 -  Moved documentation into "mime-support" subdirectory (Bug#4106)
 -  Added new "realaudio" mime-type
Files:
 15a8e45ee23d542a25105c3b7809ad62  19004  net  - 
mime-support_2.02-1.tar.gz
 5e2fcf4343716df91ece7eda0dd8ce54  21040  net  standard  
mime-support_2.02-1_all.deb

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Bug#4122: update-rc.d failed

1996-08-13 Thread Brian C. White
Package: dpkg
Version: 1.2.13elf

I'm trying to package "genpower" (a UPS monitoring daemon), but am having
trouble with the postinst:

  #! /bin/sh -e
  #
  # postinst file for genpower
  echo "- Installing 'start' ..."
  update-rc.d genpowerd start 11 1 2 3 4 5
  echo "- Installing 'stop' ..."
  update-rc.d genpowerd stop  99 0

The results of this are:

  Selecting previously deselected package genpower.
  (Reading database ... 14718 files and directories currently installed.)
  Unpacking genpower (from ../genpower_1.0.1-1_i386.deb) ...
  Setting up genpower (1.0.1-1) ...
  - Installing 'start' ...
   Adding system startup links pointing to /etc/init.d/genpowerd ...
 rc1.d/S11genpowerd -> ../init.d/genpowerd
 rc2.d/S11genpowerd -> ../init.d/genpowerd
 rc3.d/S11genpowerd -> ../init.d/genpowerd
 rc4.d/S11genpowerd -> ../init.d/genpowerd
 rc5.d/S11genpowerd -> ../init.d/genpowerd
  shift: shift count must be <= $#
  dpkg: error processing genpower (--install):
   subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1
  Errors were encountered while processing:
   genpower

I could not find any installed packages on my system that use
the "start" and "stop" commands instead of "defaults".

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.




Re: search engines

1996-08-12 Thread Brian C. White
> > I've been thinking about what you said regarding search engines for
> > "debiandoc".  As I understand it, this is to be a debian package, is it
> > not?
> 
> At least Debian. I won't get upset if someone ports it to Red Hat, Slackware,
> *BSD*, or a Cray... :-)

Cray Linux.  I've heard somebody is actually working on that!


> > What do you think of this idea?
> 
> Thanks for the offer, but alas, it's not workable -- the index needs to be
> rebuilt for each system separately, since the set of documents is different
> on each system, and Debiandoc is supposed to support locally installed
> documentation as well.
> 
> I will, however, make debiandoc and ferret work together, if it isn't
> too much work. From my experiments with glimpse a long time ago, it
> can index arbitrary directories or files, and outputs a list of filenames
> as the result of the search. If ferret can do that, then I'll add support
> for it in debiandoc.

It shouldn't be hard.  Ferret indexes an arbitrary list of words against
an arbitrary text string.  (The text string is usually a URL or a path
name, but it isn't limited to such.)

If you could add ferret to the "suggests" field, I'd appreciate it.

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

P.S.  I was joking about the Cray Linux thing.  :-)

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.




Re: Caldera's lawsuit against Microsoft

1996-08-12 Thread Brian C. White
> The terms of the suit require MS to give _Caldera_ details of APIs. Not
> the general public, just Caldera. MS can still keep them under non-disclosure,
> and Caldera would have to honor the terms of an NDA approved by the court.

I noticed this too.  It could just be necessary to make the lawsuit
plausible, but I'm not so sure.

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.





Re: CC's on this mailing list

1996-08-12 Thread Brian C. White
>  > If it is relavent to me specifically (eg. relates to one of my packages),
>  > then I like being copied because it means I won't miss it in the volume
>  > of the list.
> 
> Is it because you filter to mail folders depending on the To: field (the
> only reason I see that would make the messages appear differently)? In
> this case, can't you just use your package names as a selection criterion
> for which messages are more important for you?

Actually, it's because my address on the list is different that my
personal
address.

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're
not.





search engines

1996-08-10 Thread Brian C. White
[ I sent this to Lars, but then thought perhaps the whole list might
  be interested.  Sorry for the duplicate mail, Lars! ]

> Lars Wirzenius <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> 
> > I don't think we have free software packaged to do full text searches.
> > We have glimpse and ferret, neither of which is free. There's something
> > that is part of freeWais, but I haven't looked at it yet. Someone with
> > the time should find and package one. It should be usable from the
> > command line so that it can easily be integrated into Debiandoc.
> 
> It'd be nice to have something like altavista, that could generate a
> page containing a (heirarchical) list of the references found.

I've been thinking about what you said regarding search engines for
"debiandoc".  As I understand it, this is to be a debian package, is it
not?

Debian has been a great help in my company and we'd like to give something
back, so how about this...

We'll make a version of Ferret that you can include and redistribute with
your package completely freely.  It will be, however, a query-only version.
We'd then licence to you (free, of course) a full version from which you
could generate the index that went in the package.

What do you think of this idea?

An alternative would be to have your package depend on the evaluation
version of ferret that exists in the distribution, but I don't think this
is a good idea.

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.




Re: CC's on this mailing list

1996-08-10 Thread Brian C. White
> I'm considering adding a paragraph to the policy manual telling people
> not to CC each other when replying to messages on debian-devel.
>
> Is it the consensus of the list that this would be a good idea ?

It's a difficult call.  Quite often I get copies of mail simply because
I posted the msg being replied to, even though it is only relavent to the
group and not me specifically.

If it is relavent to me specifically (eg. relates to one of my packages),
then I like being copied because it means I won't miss it in the volume
of the list.

The best solution I can think of would be a daemon that monitors the lists
and if it sees an outgoing message that was copied to someone else, it sends
a very polite email saying that the user should be sure to copy the original
author _only_ if it specifically relates to him/her.  Making sure that such
a notice doesn't get mailed to a user more than once a month would also be
a good idea.

It's more work, but I think it would have the best results in the end.

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.




Re: Emacs per-package startup files

1996-08-10 Thread Brian C. White
> Hmm. As for dpkg needing install-elisp, I'm not quite sure I buy that,
> because it would seem to argue that *any* install-* should be included
> in dpkg. Then again, there is only install-info which *is* in dpkg,
> and install-mime which is in mime-support which has it's own
> justification. There aren't any others...

I agree that "install-elisp" should be the responsibility of emacs.
Packages that want to use it should put an

if [ -x /sbin/install-elisp ]
then
[...]
fi

around the install/uninstall code.  This will allow packages to take
advantage of it if available, but not actually depend on emacs being
installed.  This is the line I've taken with mime-support.

There is a disadvantage that installing emacs after installing a
package ("p") that tries to call "install-elisp" will mean that
"p" is completely unknown to emacs until "p" is either reinstalled
or upgraded.  I personally don't see this as a problem as upgrades
happen fairly regularly.

Of course, the above problem only exists if "install-elisp" does some
setup work, as "install-mime" does.


> So, do these files go in /var/lib/emacs, /etc/emacs, or
> /usr/lib/emacs/site-lisp, and why?  I can set it up and send changes
> to the emacs package maintainers this weekend if that gets worked
> out...

I'd vote for "/usr/lib/emacs/site-lisp".  Why?  Because "/var/lib/emacs"
is for files that can't be on a read-only filesystem and "/etc/emacs" is
for user config files and the like.

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.





Bug#4089: problems with rc.local

1996-08-10 Thread Brian C. White
Package: base
Version: 1.1

The file '/etc/rc.local' exists, but is not set up properly.

- It has permissions 644 instead of 744
- It is called only by '/etc/init.d/compat' but this file does not
appear
  to be linked into any of the "rc" directories.  ("compat" also runs
the
  file '/sbin/setup.sh')

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're
not.




mime-support 2.01-1 released

1996-08-09 Thread Brian C. White
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-

Date: 09 Aug 96 15:33 UT
Format: 1.6
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: Low
Maintainer: Brian White <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Source: mime-support
Version: 2.01-1
Binary:  mime-support
Architecture:  all source
Description: 
 mime-support: MIME files 'mime.types' and 'mailcap'
 -  As these files can be used by all MIME compliant programs, they
 -  have been moved into their own package that others can depend upon.
 -  .
 -  Other packages add themselves as viewers/editors/composers/etc. by
 -  using the "install-mime" program.
Changes:
 -  Added "--quiet" and "--noparmcheck" options to 'install-mime'
Files:
 17b27592f936cc33ae0a515854aa4883  18758  net  - 
mime-support_2.01-1.tar.gz
 3d4c8092a2e97ce78f6af06e63f4ff92  20744  net  standard  
mime-support_2.01-1_all.deb

-BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-
Version: 2.6.2i

iQCVAwUBMgtauLwRa6IPcXgFAQEAggP/REz4Z9vtjJg1Q8g6/UxLq/uW/2nZe549
h+xGN347RkFXvA3DVBuFDVQlGk+pAJLgk8u+WAbxjkgbFrJHf8TOOSn0bsBEuhYS
HD8w2zVeTDz/2er7BfHNjqf9fDeWY6Huy1Vb7/oyJVZmc0w4wLr8radHgUVx+QE5
6QHsReYPaRA=
=KhfZ
-END PGP SIGNATURE-





Re: xpdf needs an entry in mailcap

1996-08-08 Thread Brian C. White
> As the priority of mime-support is "standard" and therefore higher than the
> one of xpdf ("extra"), I'll add a "Depends: mime-support". If anybody has a
> problem with that, mail me soon, or file a bug report later ...

If you put the "if" clause around the calls to "install-mime", then you don't
have to actually depend on 'mime-support'.

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.





Re: xpdf needs an entry in mailcap

1996-08-08 Thread Brian C. White
>   Brian>  If you put the "if" clause around the calls to "install-mime", then
>   Brian> you don't have to actually depend on 'mime-support'.
> 
> That is correct. But would I want this? Now that we have mime-support,
> shouldn't I depend on it? It really is a useful feature. I find it reasonable
> to enfore this via Depends. Otherwise it fails silently and we gain nada.

I think it should depend on it, yes.  I just wanted to make sure you
knew
it wasn't strictly necessary.

In the past, some people have complained about depending upon packages
that
aren't strictly necessary.


> BTW: I currently use what you posted earlier as calls to install-mime, but
> added a ">/dev/null" as I don't like the verbosity too much. As the output of
> # grep install-info /var/lib/dpkg/info/*.postrm | grep -v quiet
> is empty on my machine, I think you should add a switch --quiet.

I can add the --quiet option, but you must not redirect the output.
"install-mime" can become interactive if it encounters a conflict, and
with no stdout this would cause problems.

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're
not.




Re: xpdf needs an entry in mailcap

1996-08-07 Thread Brian C. White
[  I goofed on the first message.  Use this one instead.  :-]


The "xpdf" postinst needs to add itself to the mailcap file so it can
be spawned by web browsers.


I suggest the following in the postinst:

if [ -x /usr/sbin/install-mime ]
then
  install-mime --install --package=xpdf --content=application/pdf \
   --description='Adobe "Acrobat" File' --nametemplate="%s.pdf" \
   --view="/usr/bin/X11/xpdf %s" --test='test "$DISPLAY" != ""'
fi


And the following in the prerm:

if [ -x /usr/sbin/install-mime ]
then
  install-mime --remove --package=xpdf
fi


The 'if' statements can be removed if you want to add a dependancy on
"mime-support (>=2.0)".

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.




Re: Could we use gunzip -c instead of zcat?

1996-08-07 Thread Brian C. White
> I'd like to suggest that scripts, debian.rules etc... use gunzip -c instead
> of zcat when the intent is to get the contents of a gzipped file on stdout.
> This is because if binaries from a BSD compress package (not necessarily
> built with compress-package) will make a true zcat available on the system,
> which of course cannot handle gzipped files.

Calling "gzip -dc" would be an even better solution.

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're
not.





xpdf needs an entry in mailcap

1996-08-07 Thread Brian C. White
The "xpdf" postinst needs to add itself to the mailcap file so it can
be spawned by web browsers.

I'd suggest the following in the postinst:

if [ -x /usr/sbin/install-mime ]
then
   install-mime --install --package=xpdf --content=application/pdf \
--view="/usr/bin/X11/xpdf %s" --test='test "$DISPLAY" != ""' \
--comment="A generic PDF viewer for X-Windows"
fi


And the following in the prerm:

if [ -x /usr/sbin/install-mime ]
then
   install-mime --remove --package=xpdf
fi

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're
not.




Bug#4011: simple c++ program segfaults

1996-08-07 Thread Brian C. White
> > Is this actually a bug?  I don't think you are supposed to call a
> > destructor directly in this situation.  I would assume that the crash
> > comes when the destructor is called a second time when the program
> > exits main.
> 
> It is legal to explicitly call a destructor but rarely needed.  It
> certainly makes no sense in this case, as the destructor will be called
> twice.

It is legal, but highly discouraged!  If the dtor is not implemented
with
this in mind (as most are not), then that could very easily be the cause
of the seg fault.

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're
not.




netscape 3.0-beta6-1 released

1996-08-07 Thread Brian C. White
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-

Date: 07 Aug 96 00:45 UT
Format: 1.6
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: Low
Maintainer: Brian White <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Source: netscape
Version: 3.0-beta6-1
Binary:  netscape
Architecture:  i386 source
Description: 
 netscape: Popular World-Wide-Web browser software (installer)
 -  Netscape (pronounced "Mozilla") is a graphical World-Wide-Web
browser
 -  with many features.  It supports advanced features of HTML and new
 -  technologies such as "Java" from Sun Microsystems.
 -  .
 -  Netscape Communications Corporation does not allow redistribution of
 -  their software.  Therefore, this package requires the user to fetch
 -  the netscape archive seperately and place it in the directory
pointed
 -  to by the TMPDIR environment variable (or /tmp if TMPDIR not
defined)
 -  before attempting to install this package.  You can get the linux
 -  packages via anonymous ftp from "ftp[1-9].netscape.com".
 -  .
 -  Do NOT try to install any version of Netscape other than 3.0-beta6
with
 -  this package!
 -  .
 -  Netscape Communications Corporation does not support the Linux
release
 -  in the slightest, even for paying customers.  It has been made
available
 -  purely as a courtesy, so please do not send them questions about
Linux.
 -  .
 -  This installer package has been placed in the public domain!
Changes: no changes info provided
Files:
 61f2cffc426f5cfaa376f150f899421b  3869  net-   
netscape_3.0-beta6-1.tar.gz
 5b7a0dde47679d1f42856f35b7c3717b  3480  net  extra 
netscape_3.0-beta6-1_i386.deb

-BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-
Version: 2.6.2i

iQCVAwUBMgfnS7wRa6IPcXgFAQEq+gP/ayvs/bBx1qctXsiAXkt+tVR8Dfw+lzJM
OayTvyOSAQnWh9SdstzXR1Qff/wEqH0DKDiOx0cgMy2VNL0TRjC6Yug5uYhHI/A3
JkDmDO3UUfLphdCNRowhVRhWTUA3EX3SVffgEca3HHHEzoiFg5HV6FwY/Y9mKlp5
p1rvGkUR4E0=
=JeBb
-END PGP SIGNATURE-




Re: perlconfig creates unnecessary/unusable files.

1996-08-03 Thread Brian C. White
> [Side Note: I wonder if I should use Ada, Agol, Assembler, C, CSH,]
> [Cobol, Eifel, Fortran, KSH, Lisp, Perl, Pascal, Python, SH, or]
> [Smalltalk to do it?  :-) :-O :-Q :-)]

Prolog, definitely!

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.





Re: Perl vs Python vs ....

1996-08-02 Thread Brian C. White
> > I'm sure C and Assembler fit "cryptic" too.  Just think how much further
> > advanced the computer industry would be if neither of those had ever been
> > invented.
> 
> As to assembler, there are lots of _very_ different styles of writing it;
> there is no one "Assembler" language. It's quite impossible to say
> anything general about it.

No it's not.  Assembler is low-level crunching.  It's unstructured, typeless,
and unportable.  If you want portable asm, go to C.

This wasn't about style.  It's about "cryptic".  Good and bad style is
possible in any language.


> As to C, while the language does miss some very crucial features and does
> make it relatively easy to write cryptic programs, the language itself is
> quite clean and orthogonal. Parsing C code, for example, does not have any
> of the quirks that parsing, say, FORTRAN or -surprise!- Perl has.

Perl's syntax is quite straightforward for a human.  It is, however, a
language of side-effects.  This is what can make it difficult to follow.
It's also what gives it part of its power.


> I still have trouble
> figuring out how to write _readable_ programs in Perl.

Funny, I don't.


> Sorry, but I disagree very much. Perl is an powerful and effective
> language. It is neither fine nor even clean; it is _very_ ugly. And while
> some variants of code are indeed easy to write in a clean way, lots of
> others aren't. You can't get rid of dependencies on $_, for example. In
> that aspect it's a lot more like assembler than like any high-level
> language.

There are very, very few places you _must_ use $_.  Writing clean code
is no more difficult than in any other language.  It's just easy in
perl to write things poorly.  I put this blame on the programmer, though,
not the language.


> > As for the truth of your comment...  Language syntax and symantics have
> > little to do with a language's success; it's how easy it is to write
> > useful programs with.  An operating system's success is due primarily
> > to the amount of software available for it.  (Don't believe me?  Look
> > at MS-Dos!)
> 
> It doesn't depend on the "easy" factor, either. Look at MS-DOS, indeed -
> for a very long time, all the utilities were completely written in
> assembler. (Somehow, this didn't make them small and fast.)

This point totally escapes me.  Dos, like C and Perl is/was successful
because of the amount of software available for it.  It doesn't matter
what the software was written in.


> Like anything else, success of languages is mainly an advertizing thing.
> And there can be no doubt that Perl has won that one. (So has C++, which
> shouldn't have either, based on any technical merits.)

I wouldn't call it avertising, but I think I know what you're saying.  These
languages were "advertised" by other users because they worked.  They did
the job better than the other choices.

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.




Re: Perl vs Python vs ....

1996-08-02 Thread Brian C. White
> > I'm sure C and Assembler fit "cryptic" too.  Just think how much further
> > advanced the computer industry would be if neither of those had ever been
> > invented.
> 
> And how much further would the industry be, if C had been typesafe (or
> if some other, typesafe language had been used)?  The expertise in
> language design existed at the time, but C didn't have it.

There were typesafe languages in the time of C:  Pascal, Modula, etc.

Where did they go?  They didn't go anywhere because they aren't useful
in real applications.  Have you ever tried to write a dynamic skip-list
in pascal?


> And yet, C was adopted as a major standard - because the people who knew
> better, didn't bother to speak up.

No.  It became a major standard because it does the job.  C++ is the same
way, and so is Perl.  They're not the prettiest, but they do the job in
an easy and efficient way.


> That's not to say that a lot hasn't been accomplished in C - obviously.
> But we could have done a lot more, if such a simple thing hadn't been
> put off until ANSI.  Also, the code I maintained on my first job,
> probably would've been a LOT cleaner - many of you are probably in the
> same boat.  I really hated roaming around fixing somebody else's stray
> pointer references.

True, but it's more likely that much of the existing code would not have
been written at all or would not be as functional.  Maintaing poorly
structured code is hard, but not as hard as maintaining code that was
kludged to get around limitations in the language.


> > As for the truth of your comment...  Language syntax and symantics have
> > little to do with a language's success; it's how easy it is to write
> > useful programs with.  An operating system's success is due primarily
> > to the amount of software available for it.  (Don't believe me?  Look
> > at MS-Dos!)
> 
> Yes, yes, yes, and No, no, no.
> 
> A language's success is typically 95% who backs it, and 5% how good it
> is.  With the masses, that is.

I disagree here, and MS-Dos is a great example.  It's not who backs it,
but what.  Dos was backed by tonnes of software.  That's why it's still
here.  Dos does the job; or did until fairly recently.


> However, for a group that knows what it's doing, it should be 5% who
> backs it, and 95% how good it is.  So it -should- be for debian.  The
> debian project is in a more than adequate position, to set a
> more-positive direction for the unix industry.

Yes!  Now define "good".  Good is how useful it is, not how how nicely
it's designed.  Perl _is_ useful.  Sure, there are other things, even
better things, in many ways.  But perl is a standard and following a
standard is also "good" in many ways.  I provides for a lot, even if it
lacks in others.

Don't get me wrong here, I abhor doing things because "that's the way
they've always been done"!  Right now, the pros of perl (good user base,
almost standard on all unicies, powerful) outweighs the pros of a
better language that fewer people know and isn't as common.  The cost
of changing must also be weighed and affects the decision even if it
alone is not sufficient reason.


> One way to do that, is to hang onto /bin/sh until something like guile
> is ready.

Guile is a neat idea, I'll admit.  It's almost like a high-level I-code
interpreter, except the I-code is scheme.  Done correctly, it could make
for a fairly painless conversion and still allow people to write in the
language of their choice, changing to better ones at their own pace.  It's
a while out, though.

Still, "good, now" is better than "perfect, later".


> Another way to do that, is to move beyond perl to something like python
> or ML (metalanguage) - right now.  It wouldn't take much at all.

But what is the cost of that move?  How many people have to be retrained?
What are the advantages?  Do the advantages outweigh the costs?


> Once the inertia's there, it's hard to change it.  In fact, many people
> will become angry with you if you do.  But it's often very worthwhile to
> take a step back, and look at the long-term ramifications of a decision.

People, in general, hate change.  I personally have nothing against
changing the supported base language if I thought it would gain something
significant.  Convince me of that and I'll argue your side without
hesitation.

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.




Re: Perl vs Python vs ....

1996-08-02 Thread Brian C. White
Dan Stromberg wrote:
> > For this reason we decided that Perl would be on our base disks, and
> > that packages could use it (well, the subset that's on the base disks)
> > in their preinst/postrm.  Packages which want something else must
> > Depend on it and may only use it in their postinst/prerm.
> 
> There's clearly a place for a stronger scripting language, despite the
> argument posed above.  It's just very sad that it should be perl.  perl
> really fits into many people's stereotypes of "unix as inherently
> cryptic monster", very neatly.

I'm sure C and Assembler fit "cryptic" too.  Just think how much further
advanced the computer industry would be if neither of those had ever been
invented.

(that's sarcasm, by the way)


> > There is no point having a religious war over this; this decision was
> > taken a long time ago and can't be changed now, even if we wanted to.
> 
> This is rhetoric.  It could be changed and you know it.  What I mean to
> say is, I really dislike "can't" when what's meant is "won't".

Of course it can be changed.  Anything can be changed!  What he was saying,
and this is obvious to anyone not specifically trying to play with words,
was that it was NOT WORTH THE TROUBLE to change even if we wanted to.


> I daresay that a linux distribution (or the Hurd, or *BSD, or...) that
> doesn't fall into the perl trap, should have a brighter future.

Oh, give it up!  Perl is a fine language.  Its powerful and is quite easy
to write nice clean code with.  It's just not _enforced_ that you write
nice clean code.  It's also very easy to garbage code, but that isn't
enforced, either.

As for the truth of your comment...  Language syntax and symantics have
little to do with a language's success; it's how easy it is to write
useful programs with.  An operating system's success is due primarily
to the amount of software available for it.  (Don't believe me?  Look
at MS-Dos!)

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.




Re: use of /usr/share

1996-08-01 Thread Brian C. White
> Erick Branderhorst writes ("use of /usr/share"):
> > Perhaps this is a very sensitive subject but shouldn't architecture
> > independent things like man pages, info manuals, tex & latex styles
> > and a lot of other things being put under a subdir of /usr/share?
> 
> The FSSTND people haven't really settled on this yet, and are now
> diverted.

On our network here, we've had great fun with all this.  Basically,
there
are four needs:

- System installed files (i.e. debian packages)
- Machine-local installed files
- Network mounted arch-dependant files
- Network mounted arch-independant files

yet there are only three locations

- / and /usr
- /usr/local
- /usr/share

Our general solution was to create a fourth and allocate them as
follows:

- / and /usr : System installed files
- /usr/local : Machine-local installed files
- /usr/site  : Network mounted arch-dependant files
- /usr/share : Network mounted arch-independant files

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're
not.





debian-private

1996-06-29 Thread Brian C. White
Is debian-private running, or have I just been removed from it?

I sent a message to it a couple days ago regarding the "WebPages"
directory now in the distribution, but never saw it, nor any other
messages to debian-private, appear.

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.




Re: 1.2 source archive and packaging issues

1996-06-17 Thread Brian C. White
> Since we're going to be
> moving every file in "unstable" anyway, that sounds like a good time to
> switch from "unstable" to a symbolic-linked directory (tentatively called
> "rex").

I recommend putting "rex" under a subdirectory called "releases" or something,
just to reduce clutter and confusion in the root directory.

> With ports on the horizon, we should be making sure that an automatic build
> of Debian in its entirety is more than a _theoretical_ possibility.

Cool!

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.



Re: Bug#3309: Netscape doesn't provide www-browser

1996-06-17 Thread Brian C. White
> I've just discovered, when installing xntp-doc-3.5c-1, that netscape
> doesn't declare itself as providing a "www-browser", causeing xntp-doc
> to be left unconfigured.

Thank you!  I've made the fix in the source and it will be uploaded shortly.

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

---
In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.




Re: Organizing "non-free"

1996-06-17 Thread Brian C. White
> >> > Sorry to bother you again, but I thought non-free was precisely for
> >> > packages which may not be sold on CDs.  Now I am confused.
> >>
> >> You're not the only one. For example, shareware programs can be "sold" on 
> >> CD
> >> but require payment for use. I'd be more specific, but I can't get to
> >> "master" at the moment. I'd better send Simon a note...
> >
> >This is one of the things I would like to improve about non-free's
> >organization.  It would be a "Good Thing" (tm) in my opinion to at least
> >differentiate between "non-free to distribute" and "non-free to use".
>
> Umm, "non-free to distribute" shouldn't be on /any/ ftp site, right?

Not always.  Just because something isn't "freely distributable" doesn't
mean that has not distributable by any specific medium, just that it can't
be distributed on all mediums.  Many programs can be made available over
FTP and yet prohibit distribution on CD-Rom.

As a person who writes some shareware applications, I would like to be able
to put in the distribution knowing that CD-Rom manufacturers will pick it
up.  If users choose to use it, then they have to pay for it.  In the end,
everybody wins.  I win because I have a bigger distribution channel.  Users
win because they have more readily available applications.  Debian wins
because it will have more users and higher satisfaction.

Brian
   ( [EMAIL PROTECTED] )

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In theory, theory and practice are the same.  In practice, they're not.