aptitude defaults for d-i

[Jared Rhine <jared@wordzoo.com>]

[Joey == joey@kitenet.net on Tue, 30 Dec 2003 16:44:19 -0500]

>> But I am not sure whether aptitude is a good choice for d-i.

>> Surely aptitude is a great tool, but sometimes it choses some
>> pretty unlikely packets to resolve dependencies (e.g. xscreensaver
>> recommends "wordlist", which aptitude resolved by selecting
>> wcatalan instead of wamerican).

Joey> The recommends behavior could perhaps be improved.

I've found that just changing the default in aptitude to "don't
install recommends" has helped trememdously in keeping a clean debian
box.  In my unreleased mini-distro, I use the following apt-conf.conf
file:

-- begin apt-conf.conf --

aptitude "";
aptitude::UI "";
aptitude::UI::New-Package-Commands "true";
aptitude::UI::Package-Header-Format "%N %n #%B %u %o";
aptitude::UI::Package-Status-Format "%d";
aptitude::UI::Package-Display-Format "%c%a%M %p #%v%V";
aptitude::UI::Default-Grouping "filter(missing),task,status,section(subdir,passthrough),section(topdir)";
aptitude::UI::Advance-On-Action "true";
aptitude::UI::Description-Visible-By-Default "true";
aptitude::UI::Minibuf-Download-Bar "false";
aptitude::UI::Pause-After-Download "false";
aptitude::UI::Prompt-On-Exit "false";
aptitude::UI::Exit-On-Last-Close "false";
aptitude::UI::Incremental-Search "true";
aptitude::UI::Minibuf-Prompts "true";
aptitude::UI::Menubar-Autohide "true";
aptitude::UI::HelpBar "true";
aptitude::Pkg-Display-Limit "";
aptitude::Delete-Unused-Pattern "";
aptitude::Delete-Unused "true";
aptitude::Suggests-Important "false";
aptitude::Recommends-Important "false";
aptitude::Auto-Fix-Broken "true";
aptitude::Auto-Install "true";
aptitude::Log "/var/log/aptitude";
aptitude::Warn-Not-Root "true";
aptitude::Forget-New-On-Install "false";
aptitude::Forget-New-On-Update "true";
aptitude::Display-Planned-Action "true";
aptitude::Changelog-URL-Template "http://cgi.debian.org/cgi-bin/get-changelog?package=%s";;
aptitude::AutoClean-After-Update "true";
aptitude::Auto-Upgrade "true";

-- end --

(I recall that some of these are the defaults, just pulled into this
file for reference.)

Probably no single configuration will make even a majority of users
happy.  If I recall correctly, the aptitude maintainer is pretty happy
with the defaults, though presumably would consider changes if there
was a community uprising.

-- jared@wordzoo.com

"We suffer primarily not from our vices or our weaknesses, but from our
 illusions.  We are haunted, not by reality, but by those images we have put
 in place of reality." - Daniel J. Boorstin