Cool things to try

Fast package installation

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Verify i3status is not yet installed: i3status --version
Install the i3status package: distri install i3status
Verify i3status is now installed: i3status --version

Specific package versions

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Find out which package a file belongs to: readlink -f /bin/i3
If we are unhappy with the path that the exchange directory references, we can side-step it and make a specific selection:
```
% i3 --version
% /ro/i3-amd64-4.15*/bin/i3 --version
% /ro/i3-amd64-4.17*/bin/i3 --version
```

Exchange directories

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The /bin directory contains all executables: ls /bin
distri implements common file system hierarchy locations such as /usr/include as a symbolic link to an exchange directory: ls -l /usr/include
Exchange directories consist of symbolic links to the files of individual distri packages: ls -l /usr/include/

Debug symbols and package sources

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Start the GNU Debugger, e.g. gdb ps
Set a breakpoint on the main function and run the program:
```
gdb> break main
gdb> run
```
Once the breakpoint is hit, list the source code:
```
gdb> list
```
Notice that you did not have to manually install any debug packages or sources.

C build environment

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Make available the build dependencies using distri install autoconf automake make gcc libxcb xorgproto

Build standard C software as usual:

% git clone https://github.com/i3/i3lock
% cd i3lock
% autoreconf -fi
% mkdir build && cd build
% ../configure
% make -j8

© 2018 Michael Stapelberg and contributors