On Thursday 19 August 2021 at 13:22:06, Dr. Nikolaus Klepp wrote:

> Install "equivs" and build a dummy package.
>
> Nik

Once again, thank you indeed for introducing me to this tool.

One tip that I'll pass on in case other people here find it useful:

- unless the thing you want to install comprises only one package, and that
package depends on systemd, don't create a dummy package of your own named
"systemd" - it's likely to conflict with other things you already have
installed in Devuan (for obvious reasons).

- instead, try to identify the smallest part of what you're installing, which
depends on systemd, and create a package named *that*

Then you can install your dummy package, plus the rest of what you wanted in
the first place, and the only bit missing is something (hopefully small) which
really wanted systemd and therefore isn't needed anyway.

In my case I was installing FreeSwitch, which you install as "freeswitch-meta-
all", and which then installs 336 "real" packages, one of which is named
"freeswitch-systemd".

It turns out that even *that* "provides freeswitch-init", so you can use
equivs to build a dummy package either called "freeswitch-init" or
"freeswitch-systemd", and either way you can then install the whole of the
rest of FreeSwitch without disrupting your nice systemd-free machine.

The absolute irony of all this (where FreeSwitch is concerned) is that the
source code for the very latest version still contains the sysvinit script
which can you then copy into place and use to manage the application. They've
simply made systemd a dependency for no good reason.


Antony.

--
If you were ploughing a field, which would you rather use - two strong oxen or
1024 chickens?

- Seymour Cray, pioneer of supercomputing

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