How to update/change the default packages provided in Alt-f

[Tango -]

Joao,

I am very much a nube.  Have been using Alt-f for less than a year and it is great.  This issue is not with your software, but a question about the environment it provides.

PArt of the alt-f install is packages of other linux services, and the ipk package management tools (I may be speaking silly here, i'm not confident i understand).

one of the packages provided is called "syncthing" and is an excellent file sync application.

Since i have my nice DNS320 with space, I want to use the "syncthing" application.  I did activate it, and had been using it reasonably successfully for some short time (few months).

The issue that has occurred is that the version currently installed is the newest release, and it is having troubles working with the maximum version i have installed on the source computer.  I have tried many configurations in the syncthing software.

I now must try to revert the version to an older version of the "syncthing" application.  

- Currently installed on the NAS is ver 1.6. 

- In the ipkg package management is a very old version (v0.13).

- I want to try to install V 1.01.  

I have the tar.gz files for v 1.01, but i don't know how to install them within Alt-f.  I searched making an ipkg package, but it is way over my head in knowledge and skill.

I also did much google searching about linux package installs, but they all refer to simpler package managers.  I was unable to find anything basic.

The syncthing application is very simple, with just a single executable, and some reference files, i just don't know how to get from the tar.gz to the files on the NAS.

I am aware that this is not an ALT-F issue.  I ask if you can help by:

1) guiding me to creating the .ipk package which i can use the Alt-f package manager with OR

2) Is there some simple copy process to move the syncthing files onto the NAS.

Thank you Joao, your alt-f is an incredible solid product.

[João Cardoso]

Please see https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt-f/3_kEFPj_cFY/yKwfLqRzBQAJ and the next post, particularly editing /usr/lib/syncthing/config.xml and setting autoUpgradeInterval to  0 before starting the new version, or else it will auto-upgrade.

The set of control, file list and scripts are located, after package install, at /usr/lib/ipkg/info/, particularly

/usr/lib/ipkg/info/syncthing.control # package control file
/usr/lib/ipkg/info/syncthing.list  # file list
/usr/lib/ipkg/info/syncthing.postinst # script to execute after pkg install. Actually it downloads and installs syncthing
/usr/lib/ipkg/info/syncthing.postrm  # script to execute after pkg removal
/usr/lib/ipkg/info/syncthing.preinst  # script to execute before install
/usr/lib/ipkg/info/syncthing.prerm # script to execute before pkg removal

All they are text based, and if you know how to, you can take them as a model for customization.

Creating a single package is possible, but requires linux skills. A .ipkg is a 'ar' archive with predefined contents. E.g., after transfering to the box:

[root@DNS-320L]# ar t syncthing_0.13.9_arm.ipk  # use the 'ar' archiver command to list pkg contents
debian-binary
data.tar.gz
control.tar.gz
[root@DNS-320L]# ar x syncthing_0.13.9_arm.ipk  # extracts contents
[root@DNS-320L]# ls -l debian-binary data.tar.gz control.tar.gz  # list extracted files
-rw-r--r--    1 jcard    users          950 Jun 10 16:58 control.tar.gz
-rw-r--r--    1 jcard    users         1186 Jun 10 16:58 data.tar.gz
-rw-r--r--    1 jcard    users            4 Jun 10 16:58 debian-binary
[root@DNS-320L]# tar tvzf data.tar.gz  # list contents of data.tar.gz
drwxr-xr-x 0/0         0 2020-03-22 16:52:19 ./
drwxr-xr-x 0/0         0 2020-03-22 16:52:19 ./etc/
drwxr-xr-x 0/0         0 2020-03-22 16:52:19 ./etc/init.d/
-rw-r--r-- 0/0      1331 2016-06-27 14:34:48 ./etc/init.d/S81syncthing
drwxr-xr-x 0/0         0 2020-03-22 16:52:19 ./usr/
drwxr-xr-x 0/0         0 2020-03-22 16:52:19 ./usr/www/
drwxr-xr-x 0/0         0 2020-03-22 16:52:19 ./usr/www/cgi-bin/
-rwxr-xr-x 0/0       382 2015-03-18 17:33:03 ./usr/www/cgi-bin/syncthing.cgi

etc. Having the install/remove scripts and desired file contents, it is possible to hand create each of debian-binary data.tar.gz control.tar.gz, and then create an .ipkg using again 'ar' but this time to create an archive. Easy, but not for a newbie :-)