on Mon, May 24, 2004 at 10:46:47AM +0100, Colin Watson (cjwatson@debian.org) wrote:
> On Sun, May 23, 2004 at 11:48:39PM -0700, Marc Wilson wrote:
> > On Fri, May 21, 2004 at 01:03:22PM -0700, Karsten M. Self wrote:
> > > There are apparently three package selection databases. These should be
> > > either unified or cross-validated:
> > >
> > > - dpkg
> > > - apt
> > > - aptitude
> > >
> > > Anyone else running into this?
> >
> > Karsten, don't bother. Every time someone brings up the fact that
> > aptitude, everyone's darling perfect child, does its own damn thing and
> > re-implements the status file... they get told to go away.
> >
> > What's even *better* is that command-line aptitude (insert random quote
> > about how aptitude is a drop-in replacement for apt-get, which it isn't)
> > and ncurses aptitude, *don't have the same behavior!* Ncurses aptitude
> > *does* honor the status file.
> >
> > Sometimes.
> >
> > I'm sorry, but dpkg is the *fundamental* tool. If you don't honor its
> > interfaces, you are *broken*. 'Nuff said.
>
> Desired state of packages should never have been in /var/lib/dpkg/status
> in the first place. (And yes, I've had this discussion with the original
> author, who agreed ...)
Where do the various tools (dpkg, dselect, aptitude) stash their status
collections?
Seems there are two possible solutions, either of which might work,
neither jumps out at me as "right" or less klugy:
1. Create a single standardized package status repository and have all
utilities modified to use / query / update it.
2. Leave the current status file balkanization in place, but have each
of the major (or would all be better) package tools check to see if
there is a status file in place elsewhere, and either incorporate
its preferences, or warn the user. In the latter case, a way to
merge or apply changes from one format to the other would be
helpful. I'd be surprised if this didn't already exist.
Hrm. 1 would probably be less klugy, come to think. Though politically
rife.
Peace.
--
Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
What Part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?
You mean you were meant to hijack my truck, make me crash it, and
have every security man in town looking for me?
- "Brazil"
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