Re: [Bug-datamash] Question about datamash for synaptic

[Assaf Gordon]

Hello Veronique,

On 2018-12-05 7:07 p.m., Veronique Chellgren wrote:
> Hello Dr. Gordon

(just "gordon", no Dr. :) )

> Thank you for maintaining Datamash. It's a helpful tool for any 
> researcher or programmer.

Thank you for the kind words. Glad to hear it's useful.

> I have a question; and sorry that I am ignorant of how package 
> management works. My question is this: *When will the current
> version of Datamash (v 1.3) become available on the Synaptic Package
> manager for Linux?*

> At the moment, I'm only seeing v1.0.7-1 on Synaptic. Is that
> correct?

"Synaptic" is the name of the package management GUI program on Debian 
and Ubuntu systems. I assume you are using one or the other.

The packages are managed by their teams, and I have no control over them.

But even more important - each version of Ubuntu (and Debian)
uses a single version of datamash, and it will not be updated
(this helps them to be very stable and reliable).

See example here:
https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=datamash

If you are using Ubuntu version 16.04 (code name "xenial"),
you will always get datamash version 1.0.7.
It will never be upgraded by the system.

Only by upgrading to a newer version of Ubuntu will you get
a newer version of datamash (even then, not the newest).

> Fortunately, I was able to download the source code for v 1.3 from the 
> gnu site at https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/datamash/  and compile it, since 
> this version has important features I use that are absent in 1.0.7

That is indeed the most recommended way to get the latest version.

Datamash should be very easy to compile from source code on all systems,
so building the latest version from source should not be a problem.

By doing so you will have two datamash versions installed:
The default (older one) in /usr/bin/datamash,
and the newer one in /usr/local/bin/datamash.

That is absolutely fine and is a typical setup.

> However, it would be helpful if binaries for 1.3 would be available. I 
> note that binaries for v 1.2 are available on the Gnu site ( 
> https://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/datamash/ ), which is great! 
> Is there a date where we can expect binaries for 1.3 to be available 
> either on the Gnu site, OR on Synaptic package manager?

I will try to put a newer version there soon.

I also expect to have a slightly improved version 1.4 before Christmas.

regards,
 - assaf