Re: Deleting uncompressed Info/Doc files at upgrades
Hi,
>>"Peter" == Peter S Galbraith <GalbraithP@dfo-mpo.gc.ca> writes:
Peter> Manoj Srivastava wrote:
Peter> I think I would have wasted my time coding this, as some have
Peter> strongly objected to what they perceive as dpkg playing
Peter> behind their back.
>>
>> I agree with you there. dpkg, or any other program, should not
>> second guess the human this way.
Peter> You know very well _I_ don't agree with this. :-)
Peter> I only said that _some_ have strongly objected... namely you!
I meant I agree with you that some people, namely I, would
surely object strongly ;-)
Peter> Of course I think it's a good idea!
What is? That programs second guess humans?
Peter> But perhaps coding an '--handle-uncompressed-docs' that is
Peter> disabled by default would be good.
>>
>> dpkg does not know that a file is a document, or have any idea
>> of the information content of files in general, apart from maintainer
>> scripts. I do not think it would be feasible to educate dpkg to
>> understand what the implications of the contents of files are, and to
>> change behaviour accordingly, since there are far too many formats
>> out there.
Peter> On Oct 16th, I suggested:
Peter> Sure, dealing with uncompressed files on upgrade is a special
Peter> case.
Yes. And we should keep special cases from cluttering up the
code, as far as possible (I have been on the maintainence of too much
hacked legacy cource code ...)
Peter> Sure dpkg should have to be changed,
Heh, heh, heh.
Peter> or maybe /var/lib/dpkg/info/*.list file could have regular
Peter> expressions, like:
The you would have to change the conflict resolution, file
searching (dpkg -S) code, and others. This is a major change for a
package whose bug list numbers in the thousands, and where critical
bugs languish for the lack of time.
Mind you, I am not cinceding that this is a good thing to do,
I am merely averring that this added complexity is not worth the
potential for breakage.
manoj
--
Peaceful of body, peaceful of speech and with his mind thoroughly
stilled, the bhikkhu who has rid himself of attachment to the world -
is called "at peace". 378
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@acm.org> <http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
Key C7261095 fingerprint = CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05 CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E
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