Re: installation Profiles and Tasks

["James R. Van Zandt" <jrv@vanzandt.mv.com>]

"Martin Bialasinski" <martin@internet-treff.uni-koeln.de> writes:
>>> "James" == James R Van Zandt <jrv@vanzandt.mv.com> wrote:
>
>James> I think there should be packages that are equivalent to the
>James> profiles and tasks in the boot disks (so users can add a task
>James> later).  Preferably, the profiles and tasks should be derived
>James> from the packages (so they stay synchronized).
>
>The idea is, that the task and profile packages will be part of the
>distribution for later use. When you select one of the new profiles or
>task during, only this task package is marked for installation with
>dpkg --set-selection, not the individual packages as done so far.
>
>The pkgsel script could still be used, as it gives more info like size 
>of the profile/task.
>
>The other option is to make sure, the task/profile packages are listed 
>first in the default view of the package management tool. But this
>will mean hacking dselect, something I am not capable to do.

Either way, the user must use dselect to get the dependent packages.
The whole point of the tasks and profiles was to let someone install
Debian without running that part of dselect.  

I admit that completing the dependency graph at boot-disk build time
is a hack, and makes boot-disks hard to maintain.  Package changes
(adding dependencies) invalidate those precalculated lists of
packages.  However, the right solution involves changes in dselect as
you suggest: It should start by listing only the profiles and tasks,
and present individual packages only if requested.

	    - Jim Van Zandt