Re: Bug#331528: ITP: debinstaller -- a graphical frontend for installing local .deb packages

[Eduard Bloch <edi@gmx.de>]

#include <hallo.h>
* Josselin Mouette [Tue, Oct 04 2005, 10:10:22AM]:

> > Far too often people (read: newbies) get confused when they can't get
> > *insert favorite package manager* to install the .deb's they've just
> > downloaded. With DebInstaller installation is simply a double click
> > away.  No fancy features, just a small dialog that ask for the sudo password
> > and if you really want to install.
> 
> Which toolkit does it use?
> Does it pull dependencies using APT as well? That feature has been
> missing in APT for a long time.

I wonder why nobody did implement that feature before. I imagine
(without knowing much about APT's internals), the pseudocode would look
like that:

 - install command gets the list
 - if the package does not exist in the cache and the given string is a
   file, then:
   - read the metadata of this package
   - creating a virtual sources set containing that package and inject
     it somewhere in APTs graph representation. The access method
     would be "file:", and it should get the highest possible priority
     (at least higher than any seen priority)
   - install the prerequisites and then the package with the usual
     methods
   fi

There may be some confusion if some package is really called
something.deb but AFAICS there is no such package.

If somebody steps out to implement the feature above, please tell me.
Otherwise I would try my luck when I get some spare time.

Eduard.
-- 
Wir können nicht mit jenen verhandeln, die sagen: was mein ist, ist
mein; und was dein ist, ist Verhandlungssache.
		-- John Fitzgerald Kennedy