• FortunesDebianHints

fortunes-debian-hints is package that contains useful hints for users and developers. If you have encounter any good hints that can be useful to all of us, please add it here.

• Contents

  1. Remarks
  2. Current Hints
  3. Proposed changes in existing hints
  4. New proposed hints
  5. Translations

Remarks

• People who read these hints may not be familiar enough with the shell to understand that stuff in angle brackets is supposed to be replaced along with the brackets -- rather, they will get a really obscure (to them) error message about redirection.
• It is always a good idea to have someone who has no idea what you are talking about help you.

Current Hints

The current file contains:

Debian Hint #1:

• You can report a bug in a package with the 'reportbug' command, which is available in the reportbug package, either from the command-line or with the new graphical frontend (available running 'reportbug --ui gtk2' or in the menu).

Debian Hint #2:

• You can use 'dpkg-reconfigure <package>' to change the answers you gave to the questions asked when you first installed a package. The 'configure-debian' package provides a unified front end for doing this, as well.

Debian Hint #3:

• You can use 'apt-cache search <words>' to search for words in the descriptions of all available packages.

Debian Hint #4:

• You can see the available and installed versions for one or more available packages with the command 'apt-cache policy <packages>'.

Debian Hint #5:

• If you need to build a custom kernel, use the 'make-kpkg' script found in the kernel-package package.

Debian Hint #6:

• There is no hint #6. Submit a hint today !

Debian Hint #7:

• You can use the cron-apt package to do automatic nightly downloads of updates for packages installed on your system.

Debian Hint #8:

• If you have problems with Debian that you can't solve by reading the manuals and documentation, try asking on the Debian Users mailing list (debian-user@lists.debian.org).

Debian Hint #9:

• If you need to know what version of Debian you're currently running, look in /etc/debian_version; if you want to know the codename for that version (for example, 3.0 is codenamed 'Woody'), check this URL: http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ/ch-ftparchives.html#s-codenames

Debian Hint #10:

• There are Debian mailing lists for everything from user questions to debates over what to put into the Debian Policy documents. Check out the list at http://www.debian.org/MailingLists/ and subscribe to those that interest you.

Debian Hint #11:

• Keep up to date on what's going on - read the Debian Times. Read it on the web at http://times.debian.net/

Debian Hint #12:

• The grep-dctrl package provides a number of useful scripts for quickly searching various package control files (such as the available packages file).

Debian Hint #13:

• If you don't like the default options used in a Debian package, you can download the source and build a version which uses the options you prefer. See http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ/ch-pkg_basics.html (sections 6.13 and 6.14) for more information.
  
  However, bear in mind that most options in most packages can be configured at runtime, and do not require recompiling the package.

Debian Hint #14:

• If you would like to follow things happening to a package (for example, if you want to see bug reports, release notices, and other similar things), consider subscribing to it on the Package Tracking System.
  You can find out more about the PTS at:
  http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/developers-reference/resources.html (Section 4.10)

Debian Hint #15:

• The documentation for a package can normally be found under /usr/share/doc/<package>. In particular, the README.Debian file often has useful information about Debian-specific quirks or tips.

Debian Hint #16:

• If you're searching for a particular file, but don't know which package it belongs to, try installing 'apt-file', which maintains a small database of this information, or search the contents of the Debian Packages database, which can be done at:
  http://www.debian.org/distrib/packages#search_contents

Debian Hint #17:

• Need someone to talk to about Debian? If you're comfortable with Internet Relay Chat (IRC), just install your favorite IRC client, and join #debian on irc.debian.org.

Debian Hint #18:

• Quality control information about a package can be found by going to http://packages.qa.debian.org/<package>; this page provides links to the Maintainer's QA page, the BTS, news items for the package, and information on which versions are available in which archives.

Debian Hint #19:

• If you're interested in building packages from source, you should consider installing the apt-src package.

Debian Hint #20:

• Want to keep track of what version of a package you have installed (especially useful for those running hybrid stable / testing / unstable systems)? Check out apt-show-versions.

Debian Hint #21:

• If your Debian box is behind a slow network connection, but you have access to a fast one as well, check out the apt-zip package.

Debian Hint #22:

• Wondering which Debian mirror is best for you? Check out the apt-spy and netselect-apt packages, which can give you information about how various mirror sites perform.

Debian Hint #23:

• If your system is using too much disk space, try the deborphan and debfoster packages; they can offer suggestions about which packages may be unused and removable. And, of course, don't forget to clean out the APT cache area (using 'apt-get clean', 'aptitude clean', or aptitude's Action -> Clean package cache menu item).

Debian Hint #24:

• If you would like to thank a maintainer for handling an issue, check out reportbug --kudos.

Debian Hint #25:

• The 'debian-reference' package contains a wide variety of reference documents for Debian users and developers. Most of the information can also be found at the following URL:
  http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/reference.

Debian Hint #26:

• If a package doesn't seem to have much documentation, check for a package named '<package>-doc' and make sure to install it as well; packages with large amounts of documentation regularly split the docs in this manner for those who don't want to install them.

Debian Hint #27:

• Regularly verify your backups. You *are* keeping backups, right? Right? (This hint brought to you by the letters 'D', 'U', 'M', and 'P', and the number 0.)

Debian Hint #28:

• If your machine is not on all of the time (such as a laptop), check out the 'anacron' package; this will make sure that regular tasks still happen, even if the machine isn't on at the time they would normally trigger.

Debian Hint #29:

• Keep your system clock accurate - install the 'ntpdate' package and configure it to set the time at startup. In addition, machines which are turned on most or all of the time should have the 'ntp' package installed to keep the time accurate in between reboots.

Debian Hint #30:

• Documentation can be made available at http://localhost/ by installing the 'doc-base' and 'doc-central' packages and their dependencies.

Debian Hint #31:

• Disabling a normally-active service in a specific runlevel should be done by changing the S link in /etc/rc<level>.d to a K link, rather than removing the link entirely; if all links are removed, the system will assume on the next install that they need to be replaced.

Debian Hint #34:

• The package 'doc-debian' contains some general documentation about the Debian project. It is also available in spanish (doc-debian-es), french (doc-debian-fr) and ukrainian (doc-debian-uk).

Debian Hint #35:

• The package 'devscripts' contains some useful scripts for users who want to help to improve Debian, e.g. wnpp-alert, rc-alert and bts.

Debian Hint #36:

• If you want to track Debian sid and have a small download quota or a really slow connection, check out the debdelta package.

Debian Hint #37:

• In search for some games? Take a look at 'goplay', which offers a nice Frontend for browsing through all kind of games.

Debian Hint #38:

• Need a newer package than shipped with Debians last stable release but don't want to upgrade to 'testing' or 'unstable'? Some packages are kept uptodate on volatile.debian.org, some others are made available at www.backports.org.

Debian Hint #39:

• Want to download a package without installing it? Use 'aptitude download <pkgname>'.

Proposed changes in existing hints

Debian Hint #1:

• You can report a bug in a package with the 'reportbug' command, which is available in the reportbug package, either from the command-line or with the new graphical frontend (available running 'reportbug --ui gtk2' or in the menu).

Debian Hint #3:

• should mention that aptitude search does the same job.

Debian Hint #9:

• should mention that 'lsb_release -sc' will also show the codename.

Debian Hint #29:

• shouldn't recommend ntpdate; ntp works fine in all cases, and it handles machines which don't always have Internet connections or which don't stay up for long periods of time. Furthermore, ntp doesn't step the clock like ntpdate does, which avoids various potential problems.

Debian Hint #31:

• needs updating for the new insserv dependency-ordering world; it should use update-rc.d rather than direct manipulation of links.

Debian Hint #38:

• No extra hint here, just a typo(?). In Hint #38 it's said "uptodate" which might be more correct as "up-to-date". Didn't want to change it directly...

New proposed hints

Check existing hints above, before adding new ones, It may be already added. Please also consider improving previous hints to make it better!

Debian Hint #40:

• Want to know how you can use a program you have never used before? "man" will be your best new friend! Type "man <program-name>" in a shell. Or, run "man -H <program-name>" to read the manual page in a browser.

Debian Hint #41:

• Improve bash's tab-completion by installing the bash-completion package.

Debian Hint #42:

• If you install the command-not-found package, attempting to run a command you don't have installed will tell you what package to install to obtain that command.

Debian Hint #44:

• You can use 'apt-cache show <package_name>' or 'aptitude show <package_name>' to get more information about a debian package.

Debian Hint #45:

• You can use 'apt-file list <package_name>' to obtain a listing of the contents of debian package. This action is similar to 'dpkg -L <package_name>' except the package does not need to be installed or fetched using apt-file in contrast to dpkg.

Debian Hint #46:

• Want to temporarily disable your iptables firewall? Use 'iptables-save | sed "/-/d;/^#/d;s/DROP/ACCEPT/" | iptables-restore' to remove all rules and set the default policy to ACCEPT.

Translations

You can also provide translation of hints too.

Available translations are: de fr hu pt tr vi zh_CN zh_TW

New translations: Grab po4a/hints.pot from latest source package to start with translation.