Re: dselect alternatives
> What are you thinking dselect does for you that apt-get doesn't?
well, this is just an anecdote (the singular of data...), but -
Yesterday apt-get maliciously lunched my install(okay, okay, I was
trying
to upgrade firestarter even though apt-get told me to file a bug report
because it thought the install was impossible... more on that coming up
soon).
The X server died horribly, screaming, as a result of things it needed
having
been scurrilously removed by "apt-get" (which did sort of warn me that
it was
had probably clobbered my X-server install) (but only after having
already
done it, of curse). I only had terminal login.
After a 4-hour late-night knock-down drag-out with apt-get, dpkg, and
dselect, trying
to figure out a way back to from where I came, I was finally able to
rescue
the install with dselect. Telling it to reconfigure everything it
didn't
like and then reinstall everything it did like, brought my install back
to
life. (I was *really* convinced I was looking at a complete reload...)
apt-get and dpkg kept generating interlocking package interdependencies
that
they *just* *could* *not* resolve...
There is probably some obscure combination of command syntax and control
file
entries for either apt-get or dpkg or both that would accomplish the
same
thing, but no amount of man-page-reading and website-trolling (via
Gatesware, since my Debian install was dead) conveyed the
appropriate incantations... "dselect", on the other hand,
despite its blatant inoperability as regards configuring specific
behaviors,
*was* able to diagnose the corrupted dependencies and rescue the
installation,
even when operated by a complete idiot.
(Pages and pages of dismal output logs from apt-get and dpkg available
on
demand, if anyone's interested) (which I wouldn't be, if I were you)
(No, I DON'T know what I'm doing, I only do what the voices in my head
tell me)
(Last night, just before I finally rescued the install, they were
telling
me to clean my guns)
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