Monday, February 25, 2008

APT HOWTO

Introduction


A new dilemma quickly took hold of the minds of the makers of GNU/Linux. They needed a rapid, practical, and efficient way to install packages that would manage dependencies automatically and take care of their configuration files while upgrading. Here again, Debian led the way and gave birth to APT, the Advanced Packaging Tool, which has since been ported by Conectiva for use with rpm and has been adopted by some other distributions.

2.1 The /etc/apt/sources.list file


As part of its operation, APT uses a file that lists the 'sources' from which packages can be obtained. This file is /etc/apt/sources.list.

The entries in this file normally follow this format:

     deb http://host/debian distribution section1 section2 section3

deb-src http://host/debian distribution section1 section2 section3

Of course, the above entries are fictitious and should not be used. The first word on each line, deb or deb-src, indicates the type of archive: whether it contains binary packages (deb), that is, the pre-compiled packages that we normally use, or source packages (deb-src), which are the original program sources plus the Debian control file (.dsc) and the diff.gz containing the changes needed for `debianizing' the program.

We usually find the following in the default Debian sources.list:

     # See sources.list(5) for more information, especially

# Remember that you can only use http, ftp or file URIs
# CDROMs are managed through the apt-cdrom tool.
deb http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-free

# Uncomment if you want the apt-get source function to work
#deb-src http://http.us.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free

These are the lines needed by a basic Debian install. The first deb line points to the official archive, the second to the non-US archive and the third to the archive of Debian security updates.

The two last lines are commented out (with a `#' in front), so apt-get will ignore them. These are deb-src lines, that is, they point to Debian source packages. If you often download program sources for testing or recompiling, uncomment them.

The /etc/apt/sources.list file can contain several types of lines. APT knows how to deal with archives of types http, ftp, file (local files, e.g., a directory containing a mounted ISO9660 filesystem) and ssh, that I know of.

Do not forget to run apt-get update after modifying the /etc/apt/sources.list file. You must do this to let APT obtain the package lists from the sources you specified.


2.2 How to use APT locally

Sometimes you have lots of packages .deb that you would like to use APT to install so that the dependencies would be automatically solved.

To do that create a directory and put the .debs you want to index in it . For example:

     # mkdir /root/debs

You may modify the definitions set on the package's control file directly for your repository using an override file. Inside this file you may want to define some options to override the ones that come with the package. It looks like follows:

     package priority section

package is the name of the package, priority is low, medium or high and section is the section to which it belongs. The file name does not matter, you'll have to pass it as an argument for dpkg-scanpackages later. If you do not want to write an override file, just use /dev/null. when calling dpkg-scanpackages.

Still in the /root directory do:

     # dpkg-scanpackages debs file | gzip > debs/Packages.gz

In the above line, file is the override file, the command generates a file Packages.gz that contains various information about the packages, which are used by APT. To use the packages, finally, add:

     deb file:/root debs/

After that just use the APT commands as usual. You may also generate a sources repository. To do that use the same procedure, but remember that you need to have the files .orig.tar.gz, .dsc and .diff.gz in the directory and you have to use Sources.gz instead of Packages.gz. The program used is also different. It is dpkg-scansources. The command line will look like this:

     # dpkg-scansources debs | gzip > debs/Sources.gz

Notice that dpkg-scansources doesn't need an override file. The sources.list's line is:

     deb-src file:/root debs/


2.3 Deciding which mirror is the best to include in the sources.list file: netselect, netselect-apt

A very frequent doubt, mainly among the newest users is: "which Debian mirror to include in sources.list?". There are many ways to decide which mirror. The experts probably have a script that measures the ping time through the several mirrors. But there's a program that does this for us: netselect.

To install netselect, as usual:

# apt-get install netselect

Executing it without parameters shows the help. Executing it with a space-separated list of hosts (mirrors), it will return a score and one of the hosts. This score takes in consideration the estimated ping time and the hops (hosts by which a network query will pass by to reach the destination) number and is inversely proportional to the estimated download speed (so, the lower, the better). The returned host is the one that had the lowest score (the full list of scores can be seen adding the -vv option). See this example:

# netselect ftp.debian.org http.us.debian.org ftp.at.debian.org download.unesp.br ftp.debian.org.br 365 ftp.debian.org.br #

This means that, from the mirrors included as parameters to netselect, ftp.debian.org.br was the best, with an score of 365. (Attention!! As it was done on my computer and the network topography is extremely different depending on the contact point, this value is not necessarily the right speed in other computers).

Now, just put the fastest mirror found by netselect in the /etc/apt/sources.list file (see The /etc/apt/sources.list file, Section 2.1) and follow the tips in Managing packages, Chapter 3.

Note: the list of mirrors may always be found in the file http://www.debian.org/mirror/mirrors_full.

Beginning with the 0.3.ds1 version, the netselect source package includes the netselect-apt binary package, which makes the process above automatic. Just enter the distribution tree as parameter (the default is stable) and the sources.list file will be generated with the best main and non-US mirrors and will be saved under the current directory. The following example generates a sources.list of the stable distribution:

# ls sources.list ls: sources.list: File or directory not found # netselect-apt stable (...) # ls -l sources.list sources.list #

Remember: the sources.list file is generated under the current directory, and must be moved to the /etc/apt directory.


2.4 Adding a CD-ROM to the sources.list file

If you'd rather use your CD-ROM for installing packages or updating your system automatically with APT, you can put it in your sources.list. To do so, you can use the apt-cdrom program like this:

     # apt-cdrom add

with the Debian CD-ROM in the drive. It will mount the CD-ROM, and if it's a valid Debian CD it will look for package information on the disk. If your CD-ROM configuration is a little unusual, you can also use the following options:

     -h           - program help

-d directory - CD-ROM mount point
-r - Rename a recognized CD-ROM
-m - No mounting
-f - Fast mode, don't check package files
-a - Thorough scan mode

For example:

     # apt-cdrom -d /home/kov/mycdrom add

You can also identify a CD-ROM, without adding it to your list:

     # apt-cdrom ident

Note that this program only works if your CD-ROM is properly configured in your system's /etc/fstab.

Managing packages

3.1 Updating the list of available packages

The packaging system uses a private database to keep track of which packages are installed, which are not installed and which are available for installation. The apt-get program uses this database to find out how to install packages requested by the user and to find out which additional packages are needed in order for a selected package to work properly.

To update this list, you would use the command apt-get update. This command looks for the package lists in the archives found in /etc/apt/sources.list; see The /etc/apt/sources.list file, Section 2.1 for more information about this file.

It's a good idea to run this command regularly to keep yourself and your system informed about possible package updates, particularly security updates.

3.2 Installing packages

Finally, the process you've all been waiting for! With your sources.list ready and your list of available packages up to date, all you have to do is run apt-get to get your desired package installed. For example, you can run:

     # apt-get install xchat

APT will search it's database for the most recent version of this package and will retrieve it from the corresponding archive as specified in sources.list. In the event that this package depends on another -- as is the case here -- APT will check the dependencies and install the needed packages. See this example:

     # apt-get install nautilus

Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
bonobo libmedusa0 libnautilus0
The following NEW packages will be installed:
bonobo libmedusa0 libnautilus0 nautilus
0 packages upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 8329kB of archives. After unpacking 17.2MB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

The package nautilus depends on the shared libraries cited, therefore APT will get them from the archive. If you had specified the names of these libraries on the apt-get command line, APT would not have asked if you wanted to continue; it would automatically accept that you wanted to install all of those packages.

This means that APT only asks for confirmation when it needs to install packages which weren't specified on the command line.

The following options to apt-get may be useful:

     -h  This help text.

-d Download only - do NOT install or unpack archives
-f Attempt to continue if the integrity check fails
-s No-act. Perform ordering simulation
-y Assume Yes to all queries and do not prompt
-u Show a list of upgraded packages as well

Multiple packages may be selected for installation in one line. Files downloaded from the network are placed in the directory /var/cache/apt/archives for later installation.

You can specify packages to be removed on the same command line, as well. Just put a '-' immediately after the name of the package to be removed, like this:

     # apt-get install nautilus gnome-panel-      

Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
bonobo libmedusa0 libnautilus0
The following packages will be REMOVED:
gnome-applets gnome-panel gnome-panel-data gnome-session
The following NEW packages will be installed:
bonobo libmedusa0 libnautilus0 nautilus
0 packages upgraded, 4 newly installed, 4 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 8329kB of archives. After unpacking 2594kB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

See section Removing packages, Section 3.3 for more details on package removal.

If you somehow damage an installed package, or simply want the files of a package to be reinstalled with the newest version that is available, you can use the --reinstall option like so:

     # apt-get --reinstall install gdm

Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 reinstalled, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/182kB of archives. After unpacking 0B will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

3.3 Removing packages

If you no longer want to use a package, you can remove it from your system using APT. To do this just type: apt-get remove package. For example:

     # apt-get remove gnome-panel

Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
gnome-applets gnome-panel gnome-panel-data gnome-session
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 4 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 14.6MB will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

As you can see in the above example, APT also takes care of removing packages which depend on the package you have asked to remove. There is no way to remove a package using APT without also removing those packages that depend on it.

Running apt-get as above will cause the packages to be removed but their configuration files, if any, will remain intact on the system. For a complete removal of the package, run:

     # apt-get --purge remove gnome-panel

Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
gnome-applets* gnome-panel* gnome-panel-data* gnome-session*
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 4 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 14.6MB will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

Note the '*' after the names. This indicates that the configuration files for each of these packages will also be removed.

Just as in the case of the install method, you can use a symbol with remove to invert the meaning for a particular package. In the case of removing, if you add a '+' right after the package name, the package will be installed instead of being removed.

     # apt-get --purge remove gnome-panel nautilus+

Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
bonobo libmedusa0 libnautilus0 nautilus
The following packages will be REMOVED:
gnome-applets* gnome-panel* gnome-panel-data* gnome-session*
The following NEW packages will be installed:
bonobo libmedusa0 libnautilus0 nautilus
0 packages upgraded, 4 newly installed, 4 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 8329kB of archives. After unpacking 2594kB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

Note that apt-get lists the extra packages which will be installed (that is, the packages whose installation is needed for the proper functioning of the package whose installation has been requested), those which will be removed, and those which will be installed (including the extra packages again).

3.4 Upgrading packages

Package upgrades are a great success of the APT system. They can be achieved with a single command: apt-get upgrade. You can use this command to upgrade packages within the same distribution, as well as to upgrade to a new distribution, although for the latter the command apt-get dist-upgrade is preferred; see section Upgrading to a new release, Section 3.5 for more details.

It's useful to run this command with the -u option. This option causes APT to show the complete list of packages which will be upgraded. Without it, you'll be upgrading blindly. APT will download the latest versions of each package and will install them in the proper order. It's important to always run apt-get update before you try this. See section Updating the list of available packages, Section 3.1. Look at this example:

     # apt-get -u upgrade

Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following packages have been kept back
cpp gcc lilo
The following packages will be upgraded
adduser ae apt autoconf debhelper dpkg-dev esound esound-common ftp indent
ipchains isapnptools libaudiofile-dev libaudiofile0 libesd0 libesd0-dev
libgtk1.2 libgtk1.2-dev liblockfile1 libnewt0 liborbit-dev liborbit0
libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2 libtiff3g libtiff3g-dev modconf orbit procps psmisc
29 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded.
Need to get 5055B/5055kB of archives. After unpacking 1161kB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

The process is very simple. Note that in the first few lines, apt-get says that some packages were kept back. This means that there are new versions of these packages which will not be installed for some reason. Possible reasons are broken dependencies (a package on which it depends doesn't have a version available for download) or new dependencies (the package has come to depend on new packages since the last version).

3.5 Upgrading to a new release

This feature of APT allows you to upgrade an entire Debian system at once, either through the Internet or from a new CD (purchased or downloaded as an ISO image).

It is also used when changes are made to the relationships between installed packages. With apt-get upgrade, these packages would be kept untouched (kept back).

For example, suppose that you're using revision 0 of the stable version of Debian and you buy a CD with revision 3. You can use APT to upgrade your system from this new CD. To do this, use apt-cdrom (see section Adding a CD-ROM to the sources.list file, Section 2.4) to add the CD to your /etc/apt/sources.list and run apt-get dist-upgrade.

It's important to note that APT always looks for the most recent versions of packages. Therefore, if your /etc/apt/sources.list were to list an archive that had a more recent version of a package than the version on the CD, APT would download the package from there.

In the example shown in section Upgrading packages, Section 3.4, we saw that some packages were kept back. We'll solve this problem now with the dist-upgrade method:

     # apt-get -u dist-upgrade

Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Calculating Upgrade... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
cpp-2.95 cron exim gcc-2.95 libident libopenldap-runtime libopenldap1
libpcre2 logrotate mailx
The following packages have been kept back
lilo
The following packages will be upgraded
adduser ae apt autoconf cpp debhelper dpkg-dev esound esound-common ftp gcc
indent ipchains isapnptools libaudiofile-dev libaudiofile0 libesd0
libesd0-dev libgtk1.2 libgtk1.2-dev liblockfile1 libnewt0 liborbit-dev
liborbit0 libstdc++2.10-glibc2.2 libtiff3g libtiff3g-dev modconf orbit
procps psmisc
31 packages upgraded, 10 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/7098kB of archives. After unpacking 3118kB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

Note now that the packages will be upgraded, and new packages will also be installed (the new dependencies of the packages). Note too that lilo is still being kept back. It probably has a more serious problem than a new dependency. We can find out by running:

     # apt-get -u install lilo

Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
cron debconf exim libident libopenldap-runtime libopenldap1 libpcre2
logrotate mailx
The following packages will be REMOVED:
debconf-tiny
The following NEW packages will be installed:
cron debconf exim libident libopenldap-runtime libopenldap1 libpcre2
logrotate mailx
The following packages will be upgraded
lilo
1 packages upgraded, 9 newly installed, 1 to remove and 31 not upgraded.
Need to get 225kB/1179kB of archives. After unpacking 2659kB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

As noted in the above, lilo has a new conflict with the package debconf-tiny, which means it couldn't be installed (or upgraded) without removing debconf-tiny.

To know what's keeping or removing a package you may use:

     # apt-get -o Debug::pkgProblemResolver=yes dist-upgrade

Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Calculating Upgrade... Starting
Starting 2
Investigating python1.5
Package python1.5 has broken dep on python1.5-base
Considering python1.5-base 0 as a solution to python1.5 0
Holding Back python1.5 rather than change python1.5-base
Investigating python1.5-dev
Package python1.5-dev has broken dep on python1.5
Considering python1.5 0 as a solution to python1.5-dev 0
Holding Back python1.5-dev rather than change python1.5
Try to Re-Instate python1.5-dev
Done
Done
The following packages have been kept back
gs python1.5-dev
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.

This way, it's easy to notice that the python1.5-dev package cannot be installed because of an unsatisfied dependency: python1.5.

3.6 Removing unused package files: apt-get clean and autoclean

When you install a package APT retrieves the needed files from the hosts listed in /etc/apt/sources.list, stores them in a local repository (/var/cache/apt/archives/), and then proceeds with installation, see Installing packages, Section 3.2.

In time the local repository can grow and occupy a lot of disk space. Fortunately, APT provides tools for managing its local repository: apt-get's clean and autoclean methods.

apt-get clean removes everything except lock files from /var/cache/apt/archives/ and /var/cache/apt/archives/partial/. Thus, if you need to reinstall a package APT should retrieve it again.

apt-get autoclean removes only package files that can no longer be downloaded.

The following example show how apt-get autoclean works:

     # ls /var/cache/apt/archives/logrotate* /var/cache/apt/archives/gpm*

logrotate_3.5.9-7_i386.deb
logrotate_3.5.9-8_i386.deb
gpm_1.19.6-11_i386.deb

In /var/cache/apt/archives there are two files for the package logrotate and one for the package gpm.

     # apt-show-versions -p logrotate

logrotate/stable uptodate 3.5.9-8
# apt-show-versions -p gpm
gpm/stable upgradeable from 1.19.6-11 to 1.19.6-12

apt-show-versions shows that logrotate_3.5.9-8_i386.deb provides the up to date version of logrotate, so logrotate_3.5.9-7_i386.deb is useless. Also gpm_1.19.6-11_i386.deb is useless because a more recent version of the package can be retrieved.

     # apt-get autoclean

Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Del gpm 1.19.6-11 [145kB]
Del logrotate 3.5.9-7 [26.5kB]

Finally, apt-get autoclean removes only the old files. See How to upgrade packages from specific versions of Debian, Section 3.9 for more information on apt-show-versions.

3.7 Using APT with dselect

dselect is a program that helps users select Debian packages for installation. It's considered somewhat complicated and rather boring, but with practice you can get the hang of its console-based ncurses interface.

One feature of dselect is that it knows how to make use of the capacity Debian packages have for "recommending" and "suggesting" other packages for installation. To use the program, run `dselect' as root. Choose 'apt' as your access method. This isn't truly necessary, but if you're not using a CD ROM and you want to download packages from the Internet, it's the best way to use dselect.

To gain a better understanding of dselect's usage, read the dselect documentation found on the Debian page http://www.debian.org/doc/ddp.

After making your selections with dselect, use:

     # apt-get -u dselect-upgrade

as in the example below:

     # apt-get -u dselect-upgrade

Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
lbxproxy
The following NEW packages will be installed:
bonobo console-tools-libs cpp-3.0 enscript expat fingerd gcc-3.0
gcc-3.0-base icepref klogd libdigest-md5-perl libfnlib0 libft-perl
libgc5-dev libgcc300 libhtml-clean-perl libltdl0-dev libsasl-modules
libstdc++3.0 metamail nethack proftpd-doc psfontmgr python-newt talk tidy
util-linux-locales vacation xbill xplanet-images
The following packages will be upgraded
debian-policy
1 packages upgraded, 30 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 7140kB of archives. After unpacking 16.3MB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

Compare with what we see when running apt-get dist-upgrade on the same system:

     # apt-get -u dist-upgrade  

Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Calculating Upgrade... Done
The following packages will be upgraded
debian-policy
1 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 421kB of archives. After unpacking 25.6kB will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]

Note that many of the packages from above are being installed because other packages "suggested" or "recommended" them. Others are being installed or removed (in the case of lbxproxy, for example) per the choices we made while navigating through dselect's package listing. Dselect can be a powerful tool when used in conjunction with APT.

3.9 How to upgrade packages from specific versions of Debian

apt-show-versions provides a safe way for users of mixed distributions to upgrade their systems without getting more of the less-stable distribution than they had in mind. For instance, it is possible to upgrade just your unstable packages by running after having installed the apt-show-versions package:

     # apt-get install `apt-show-versions -u -b | grep unstable | cut -d ' ' -f 

3.10 How to keep specific versions of packages installed (complex)

You may have occasion to modify something in a package and don't have time or don't want to port those changes to a new version of the program. Or, for instance, you may have just upgraded your Debian distribution to 3.0, but want to continue with the version of a certain package from Debian 2.2. You can "pin" the version you have installed so that it will not be upgraded.

Using this resource is simple. You just need to edit the file /etc/apt/preferences.

The format is simple:

     Package: 

Pin:
Pin-Priority:

Each entry must be separated from any other entries by a blank line. For example, to keep package sylpheed that I have modified to use "reply-to-list" at version 0.4.99, I add:

     Package: sylpheed

Pin: version 0.4.99*

Note that I used an * (asterisk). This is a "wildcard"; it say that I want that this "pin" to be valid for all versions beginning with 0.4.99. This is because Debian versions its packages with a "Debian revision" and I don't want to avoid the installation of these revisions. So, for instance, versions 0.4.99-1 and 0.4.99-10 will be installed as soon as they are made available. Note that if you modified the package you won't want to do things this way.

The pin priority helps determine whether a package matching the "Packages:" and "Pin:" lines will be installed, with higher priorities making it more likely that a matching package will be installed. You can read apt_preferences(7) for a thorough discussion of priorities, but a few examples should give the basic idea. The following describes the effect of setting the priority field to different values in the sylpheed example above.

1001
Sylpheed version 0.4.99 will never be replaced by apt. If available, apt will install version 0.4.99 even if it would replace an installed package with a higher version. Only packages of priority greater than 1000 will ever downgrade an existing package.
1000
The effect is the same as priority 1001, except that apt will refuse to downgrade an installed version to 0.4.99
990
Version 0.4.99 will be replaced only by a higher version available from a release designated as preferred using the "APT::Default-Release" variable (see How to keep a mixed system, Section 3.8, above).
500
Any version higher than 0.4.99 of sylpheed which is available from any release will take preference over version 0.4.99, but 0.4.99 will still be preferred to a lower version.
100
Higher versions of sylpheed available from any release will take preference over version 0.4.99, as will any installed higher version of slypheed; so 0.4.99 will be installed only if no version is installed already. This is the priority of installed packages.
-1
Negative priorities are allowed as well, and prevent 0.4.99 from ever being installed.

A pin can be specified on a package's version, release or origin.

Pinning on a version, as we have seen, supports literal version numbers as well as wildcards to specify several versions at one time.

Option release depends on the Release file from an APT repository or from a CD. This option may be of no use at all if you're using package repositories that don't provide this file. You may see the contents of the Release files that you have on /var/lib/apt/lists/. The parameters for a release are: a (archive), c (components), v (version), o (origin) and l (label).

An example:

     Package: *

Pin: release v=2.2*,a=stable,c=main,o=Debian,l=Debian
Pin-Priority: 1001

In this example, we chose version 2.2* of Debian (which can be 2.2r2, 2.2r3 -- this accommodates "point releases" that typically include security fixes and other very important updates), the stable repository, section main (as opposed to contrib or non-free) and origin and label Debian. Origin (o=) defines who produced that Release file, the label (l=) defines the name of the distribution: Debian for Debian itself and Progeny for Progeny, for example. A sample Release file:

     $ cat /var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.debian.org.br_debian_dists_potato_main_binary-i386_Release

Archive: stable
Version: 2.2r3
Component: main
Origin: Debian
Label: Debian
Architecture: i386

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Open Source India Week

LinuxAsia Grows Bigger Becomes Open Source India Week

As India opens up to open source more rapidly than ever, the annual event brings together the who's who of the open source world on one stage, once again.

LinuxAsia was India's biggest Linux & Open Source event. LinuxAsia grows bigger, becomes Open Source India Week. International luminaries, senior industry professionals, technology analysts, enthusiasts, media-persons, students, and others from the Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) community will converge at this week-long event with the goal to make India a super-power in the field of open source.

Open Source India Week

Open Source India Week (OSIW) is essentially a collection of FOSS-related events that will be conducted across India within the 3rd week of February 2008.

For the last four years, LinuxAsia[1] was India's biggest Linux & Open Source event. This year it has grown even bigger. And, has adopted a new name--Open Source India Week 2008 (OSIW). OSIW will be held across three cities – New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore – from February 11-15, 2008. International luminaries, senior Industry professionals, technology analysts, enthusiasts, media-persons, students and others from the Free & Open Source Software (FOSS) community will converge at this week-long event with the goal to make India a super-power in the field of open source.

Seventeen different events are being held as part of OSIW, across the three cities. Nine goals, displayed on the home page of OSIW (www.osiweek.com)[2] act as guidelines for these events. One of the goals marks the growing influence on Open Source on the human society in general, which states—to demonstrate open source solutions for disabled individuals and to lay a road-map for faster development in the future. Thus, there's a dedicated seminar on the topic 'FOSS technologies and applications for people with disabilities.' This seminar is to be held at the Pragati Maidan, Hall #5, on the 15th of February 2008.

The OSIW is being organized by the Forum for Open Source Innovation in India (FOSII)[3] The organizers believe that software development for mobile devices is another avenue that presents a great opportunity for India to tap, and open source solutions can play a significant role in reducing the cost of development, and in innovating faster. “Making a software work in different local languages (localisation) is much easier when using open source technology, since the source code is available to you, and you are free to modify it, as per your requirements”, explains Rahul Chopra, Editor, LINUX For You, a member of the FOSII panel.

The Conference Keynote sessions will be addressed by luminaries that include Klaus and Adriane Knopper, co-developers of Knoppix; Brian Behlendorf, Founder-CollabNet and Director of Mozilla Foundation; Dr. Anthony Wasserman, Executive Director of the Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Open Source Investigation (COSI), Louis Suárez-Potts of OpenOffice.org. Indian speakers and industry leaders include Nandkumar Pradhan, CEO of Red Hat India; Sandeep Menon, Head of Novell; Vikas Kanungo, Chairman - The Society for Promotion of e-Governance, India; and C Umashankar, MD, ELCOT. One of the star speakers is David Axmark, who is a co-founder of MySQL, a firm that was recently bought by Sun Microsystems for US $ 1 billion.

Speaking of the Conference, Mukul Mahajan, member, FOSII (CEO, Tetra Information Services Pvt. Ltd.) , said, “The LinuxAsia series being held for the last four years has been a great success, with evangelists, enthusiasts, industry and students alike. We have had over 5000 IT professionals and over 9000 IT students participate in our events. This year we decided to expand the spread of the event by making it the Open Source India Week and also taking it across more locations. This is an attempt to broad-base participation, provide a platform of exchange for all stakeholders in the open source community, and strongly encourage applications that benefit mankind in some way. That is why, the special session this year is on solutions for the disabled.”

The five-day, three-city mega conference and expo will see several parallel activities. Among these are the CTO Summit to be held at Bangalore on February 12, at which participants from leading companies will deliberate how they can derive value from Open Source strategies and actually build business around it, drawing from experience of such giants as MySQL, Red Hat, Novell and Indian giants like Satyam and TCS. The CXO Summit to be held at Mumbai on February 13 and at New Delhi on February 15, will see a gathering of the top IT decision makers from government, enterprise, academic segment and SMEs who will share best practices relating to Linux and Open Source.

With the Open Source conference and expo having expanded to three cities, the organisers have announced 500 free registrations for the 'Visitor Pass'. As a community initiative that would encourage students and enthusiasts to benefit in big numbers, the Free Registration offer will entitle registrants to attend the Keynote sessions, and access to the expo area. Those wanting to avail of this offer can go to www.osiweek.com and register immediately.

Goals for OSIW 2008

1) Foster spirit of innovation and contribution amongst techies The Keynotes, the TechZone, and FOSS India Awards are going to be the key drivers in this direction.

2) Update software developers with the latest trends, technologies and best practices from the open source world The TechZone will have dedicated tracks for software developers. Plus, the Keynotes and focused workshops will certainly help further this goal.

3) Equip IT implementers with latest open source solutions and best practices The TechZone will have dedicated tracks for IT Implementers (aka IT Pros) too. Plus, focused workshops are being planned to achieve this goal.

4) Accelerate adoption of open source software amongst SMEs and Enterprise customers The CXOSummit, a black-tie event introduced last year, was successful in achieving this goal. This year, along with Delhi, the CXOSummit will be held at Mumbai too.

5) Motivate IT firms (and entrepreneurs) to adopt open source business models The CTOSummit, being held at India's Silicon valley--Bangalore, will be the key driver for this goal.

6) Enable IT firms to reduce their costs, and improve their quality, by leveraging open source tools and technologies Again, the CTOSummit being held at Bangalore will drive this initiative too.

7) Accelerate development of Linux & open source software for Mobile Devices A technical seminar at B'lore will highlight the latest developments that promise to make FOSS a key enabler for developing mobile devices, and their software.

8) Promote ‘technopreneurship’ based on FOSS values amongst the young techies A half-day seminar by Canaan Partners at B'lore will apprise you of what it takes to be a technopreneur, the key parameters that VCs look for in startups, and how the scenario changes for FOSS firms.

9) Highlight IT Tools for the disabled A half-day seminar at Delhi will showcase IT tools that address the challenges of disability and accessibility, and lay the roadmap for future development.

See also

References


Saturday, February 2, 2008

Technical Writing

Resources on Technical Writing

Topics Related to Technical Writing
Desktop Publishing Links Links for my desktop publishing class.
Writing for the Web Links Links for Writing for the Web class.
EPSS InfoSite Site for Electronic Performance Support system examples and theory.
Information Design Links to resources that can help you explore and practice meaningful and effective information design.
Tech Writing Tools Discussion about pros and cons of various software used for documentation.
XML (Extensible Markup Language) XML The mission of this site is to help you discover XML and learn how this new Internet technology can solve real-world problems in information management and electronic commerce.
XML Cover Pages A comprehensive online reference work for the Extensible Markup Language (XML) and its parent, the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML).
XML-DOC site at Ggroups. XML-DOC is for technical writers, markup authors, XML developers, XML product vendors and systems integrators, and anyone else interested in discussing the application of XML tools and techniques to the creation of documentation, particularly documentation for computer software and hardware.
Associations and Groups
ACM SIGDOC Association for Computer Machinery Special Interest Group for DOCumentation. Members are from all technical and scientific disciplines, those who create documentation in the computing community and those who use of computers to create documentation in many styles and mediums.
ACM SIGLINK Association for Computer Machinery Special Interest Group for hypertext/hypermedia. SIGLINK is a forum for the promotion, dissemination, and exchange of ideas concerning hypertext research, technologies, and applications among scientists, systems designers, and end-users.
Alliance for Computers and Writing The Alliance seeks to coordinate the ideas and efforts individual teachers and researchers, academic institutions, and business entities (publishers, software vendors, etc.). It seeks to be a source of practical information about the effects of computer and information technology on education.
American Medical Writers' Association The American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), founded in 1940, is the leading professional organization for biomedical communicators. More than 4,000 communicators, representing 24 countries belong to AMWA.
American Society for Information Science (ASIS) ASIS counts among its membership some 4,000 information specialists from such fields as computer science, linguistics, management, librarianship, engineering, law, medicine, chemistry, and education; individuals who share a common interest in improving the ways society stores, retrieves, analyzes, manages, archives and disseminates information.
Association of British Science Writers The Association of British Science Writers (ABSW) exists to help those who write about science and technology and to improve the standard of science journalism in the UK. Its members include print and broadcast journalists, authors, scriptwriters and producers, and others active in the field of communicating science and technology.
Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW) The Association of Teachers of Technical Writing was established in 1973 to encourage dialogue among teachers of technical communication and to develop technical communication as a discipline. Its international membership includes over 1000 teachers and professional communicators.
Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication (CPTSC) The primary purposes of the organization is to promote programs in technical and scientific communication, promote research in technical and scientific communication, develop opportunities for the exchange of ideas and information concerning programs, research, and career opportunities, assist in the development and evaluation of new programs in technical and scientific communication, and exchange information.
IDEAllliance A volunteer non-profit membership association, IDEAlliance, formerly the Graphic Communications Association (GCA), was formed in 1966 to apply computer technology to printing, publishing, and related industries. GCA developed and fosters the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), from which the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is derived.
IEEE Professional Communication Society The Professional Communication Society (PCS) is one of the 37 technical groups of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). They enhance the core competency of communication in our membership by exploring the theory and application of all forms of communication technology.
International Interactive Communications Society (IICS) Since its founding in 1983, the IICS has dedicated itself to the advancement of interactive systems and the people who produce them. Members come from a wide variety of multimedia-related fields and applications.
Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (ISTC) The Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicators (ISTC) is the largest professional body in the UK for people engaged in scientific and technical communication.
National Association of Science Writers NASW aims to "foster the dissemination of accurate information regarding science through all media normally devoted to informing the public." Members include freelancers and employees of most of the major newspapers, wire services, magazines, and broadcast outlet, public information officers on science from government labs, universities and other institutions.
Office of Scientific and Technical Information The Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) leads the Technical Information Management Program (TIMP) for the Department which provides direction and coordination for management and dissemination of scientific and technical information (STI) resulting from the DOE Research & Development programs as well as environmental programs.
Plain English Campaign Plain English Campaign is an independent UK-based organization that fights to stamp out all forms of gobbledygook - legalese, small print and bureaucratic language.
*Society for Technical Communication

STC is an individual membership organization dedicated to advancing the arts and sciences of technical communication - it is the largest organization of its type in the world. Its 20,000 members include technical writers, editors, graphic designers, videographers, and multimedia artists.

Their journal Technical Communication is online. You can register as a guest to view articles over one-year old.

Special interest groups include the following: Consulting and Independent Contracting, Education and Research, Emerging Technologies, Environmental, Safety, and Health Communication, Indexing, Information Design, International Technical Communication, Lone Writer, Management, Marketing Communication, Multimedia, Online Information, Policies and Procedures, Quality, Scientific Communication, Usability, and Visual Communication.

TechComm Unmoderated TechComm Unmoderated is an unmoderated, uncensored list designed to foster
open and unrestricted personal expression amongst technical writers,
editors, and other technical communicators.
*TECHWR-L The Official TECHWR-L, the Web site supporting the TECHWR-L listserv list. TECHWR-L is an unmoderated discussion forum for technical communication topics. Join the list and benefit from over 4400 subscribers' expertise, education, and experience. Read their archives, especially tips on writing resumes.
Usability Professionals' Association A forum to promote usability concepts and techniques worldwide.

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General Resource Lists
Allyn & Bacon Tech Community A resource Web site for teachers, students, and practitioners of technical communication. You can find information to help you study, teach or practice technical communication.
Editing & Writing at NASA Lewis Research Center Includes Visual Information Exchange newsletter, grammar and usage advice, report writing guide, links to online style guides, and help with punctuation, capitalization, definitions, spelling and key words, writing style, or word choices.
Gary Conroy Formerly About's technical writing page. Contains articles, as well as links to a variety of resources organized by category, such as desktop publishing and electronic publishing.
HyText Haven For Technical Writers Tools, tips, tools, contracts, procedures, and tutorials for technical writers.
Internet Resources For Technical Communicators Links to Internet resources for technical writers.
John December's Technical Communication Information Sources John December's links to organizations, resource collections, teaching, topics, programs, and related information.
Masterpiece Media's Favorite Technical Writing Links Masterpiece Media's Links to resources for technical writers, including general resources and employment links.
Online Writing Center The University of Minnesota Department of Rhetoric virtual writing center for scientific and technical writing. Contains a chat room, skills center with grammar oracle, and other resources.
Resources for Technical Writers & Trainers This online magazine is designed to help technical writers, trainers, and courseware developers do their jobs better. It contains articles, tutorials, and other resources for technical communication and training.
Tech Comm Library The Tech Comm Library is a comprehensive TC web portal, built for students, professionals and enthusiasts of technical, professional and scientific communication. Their goal is to provide an access point to knowledge available online.
Technical Communication at Cal Poly Links to resources and a list of programs in technical communication around the country.
Technical Communicators Resource Site Created by Duncan Kent & Associates as a comprehensive resource for writers of policy and procedure manuals, user guides and online help systems, and Web publications.
Tech Prof Resource for teachers and researchers in Technical and Professional Communication.
User-Friendly Manuals Links to organizations and an updated booklist for technical writing.
Voice of the Shuttle: Technology of Writing Links to communication, composition, multimedia, hypertext, and related sites.
Writer's Write Writer's Write specialty section for technical writing. Here you'll find links to technical writing jobs, resources for technical writers, technical information, a job list, and a technical writing message board.

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Online Help
DJ's Help Page Links to resources on WinHelp, HTML, and HTML Help.
ehelp Home page of the makers of RoboHelp.
epss.com An independent webzine providing the most comprehensive resource on the World Wide Web for Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS), Performance Centered Design, and Knowledge Management.
Help Master Large selection of WinHelp and HTML Help related files and hints.
HyperTexas Site for technical writers, Winhelp authors and Web developers looking for late-breaking news on tools and techniques. It also provides dates and details of John Daigle's Winhelp and Influent Technology Seminars for FrontPage . HyperTexas content is oriented toward authors rather than hard-core programmers. They have a good resource list of other WinHelp sites on the Web.
JC's Resources for WinHelp Authors List of tools, books, and Web sites for WinHelp.
Microsoft HTMLHelp Site Builder Network is Microsoft's one-stop resource for Web professionals, including programmers, designers, authors, and administrators. The Workshop library contains in-depth technical articles and downloadables. The online magazine contains feature articles and columns. There is also a gallery of free Web components.
Paul Arnote's WinHelp World A repository of Windows Help information and links.
Sageline Hypertext, HMTL Help, and WinHelp announcements, news, and general information.
The Windows Help Universe Site for Weisner Associates, Inc. (WAI) is a software consulting and development company. The Windows Help Universe is complete guide to online Windows Help resources, including articles, authoring tools, vendors, utilities, books, newsletters, downloads, and more.
WinHelp Repository Hard-to-find add-ons and utilities for WinHelp and HTML Help authors, clipart collections, tips and tricks, links to other WinHelp-related sites and more.
Winhlp-L Home Page Winhlp-L is a listserv discussion group for people who author Windows Help files and other hypertext files like MediaView and Multimedia Viewer. The site provides subscription information, as well as a message database and other sources of information.
WinWriters Conferences, Seminars, Publications, and Resources for WinHelp and HTML Help Developers

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Hypertext
Eastgate Systems Site for Eastgate Systems, creators of Storyspace. The site contains a bibliography, as well as links to hypertext resources on the Web and examples.
HyperAct Site for HyperAct, Inc. Includes links to useful hypertext, hypermedia, HTML Help, and WinHelp resources.
Hypertext Places Useful WWW sites regarding hypertext, hypermedia, and the Web.
Jakob Nielsen Home page of Jakob Nielsen, the author of books and articles on hypertext and interface design., contains useful links to books and articles on hypertext and Web design.
Work Write Contains WinHelp and HTML Help news, design tips, reviews of authoring tools, and links to other resources for help authors.
WWWeb Hypertext Style Jerry Tutsch's document proposing and demonstrating hypertext structure and style conventions for WWWeb based hypertext documents.

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Books, Journals, and Webzines
The Art of Electronic Publishing Online version of Sandy Ressler's book from Prentice-Hall.
The Craft of Scientific Writing Michael Alley's Web site containing exercises, tutorials, and resources for teachers and students.
Internet Technical Writing Online text for David McMurrey's course in technical writing.

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Job Information
America's Job Bank Job database in a variety of fields.
Career Builder Job database in a variety of fields.
computerjobs.com Once you click a category like Technical Writing, has useful Resources links to salary and other career information.
dice High-tech jobs online.
employment 911 Searches over 350 major job sites and 3 million jobs.
HeadHunter Job database in a variety of fields, mostly contract.
justtechwriterjobs.com Part of the JustTechJobs.com ifor IT professionals.
L.L. Stamper Agent for technical writers and other specialties.
Monster Board Job database in a variety of fields, mostly contract.
NetTemps Job database in a variety of fields, mostly contract.
Resume & Portfolio Sites eResumes and Resources

Newbie Tech Writing Portfolios

*Society for Technical Communication Check JOBS DATABASE link for both permanent and contract jobs around the country.

Check local STC chapter to subscribe to their job list.

www.Technical Communicator.com Job and employment resource for technical writers, editors, illustrators, publishers, videographers and more.

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Software
Adobe Site for information about PageMaker, Acrobat, and FrameMaker.

See Acrobat PDF for links to sample PDF files on the Web.

desktoppublishing.com One of the best starting points for links to every aspect of desktop publishing, including software, tutorials, and how-to information.

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Reference
Dictionary of PC Hardware and Data Communication Terms This comprehensive dictionary provides complete descriptions of complex terms in two areas of computer development: personal computers and networks. It contains up-to-date information about everything from a common item like "batteries" to an obscure font technology called "Speedo."
Free Online Dictionary of Computing Includes over 13,000 computer terms.
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary Allows you to search more than 160,000 entries in the Web's most up-to-date dictionary. It also contains the WWWebster Thesaurus.
Netdictionary An alphabetical reference guide to technical, cultural, and humorous terms related to the Internet.
NetLingo This online dictionary contains definitions of hundreds of words that are emerging as a new vocabulary surrounding the technology and community of the Internet and the World Wide Web.
OneLook Dictionaries Allows you to search or browse over 500 online dictionaries.
Roget's Thesaurus Allows you to search the headwords or full text of Roget's Thesaurus version 1.02 (supplemented: July 1991) released to the public domain by MICRA, Inc. and the Gutenberg Project. Internal cross references are represented as clickable hyper-text links.
TechEncyclopedia Contains over 10,000 definitions to computer terms and concepts.
UGeek Glossary Search Computer and Internet terms.
Webopedia Online dictionary and search engine for computer and Internet technology.
whatis.com Dictionary of terms related to new technology, cyberculture, the Internet, HTML, graphic design, hardware, and software.

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Style and Grammar Guides
The Curmudgeon's Stylebook Supplement to the AP style book.
Elements of Style The 1918 version by William Strunk.
Grammar and Style Notes An alphabetical, indexed list prepared by Jack Lynch at the University of Pennsylvania.
Guide to Grammar and Writing Online grammar rules, interactive quizzes, document samples.
Online English Grammar Online grammar handbook that allows you to find topics in a variety of ways.
Style Guide for Online Hypertext A discussion of hypertext style by Tim Berners-Lee, founder of the Web.
Wired Style An online style guide by the editors of Wired Magazine.
Yale C/AIM Web Style Guide Focuses on graphic design, user interface design, information design, and other principles resulting from projects conducted at the Yale Center for Advanced Instructional Media.

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Fun
RexTechs Merchandise for technical writers.