dpkg and its development
I'm afraid development of dpkg is stalled for some time.
Why? dpkg is still missing some important features.
dpkg isn't good tool for automatic administration without interactive mode.
I think this should be another option --force-replace-conf which
automatically replaces conffiles without questions and --force-leave-conf
which leaves old conffiles automatically.
Next problem - overwriting 'normal' files. i.e. Windows shows
dialog with options [yes] [no] [yes for all newer files].
I think dpkg should have a possibility to overwrite files
if they are newer than current file.
dpkg hasn't any verify tool. This tool is very helpful after system
crash or administrator's error like removing or modifing system file.
rpm has its own -V option.
What about i18n? dpkg can't handle more than one language in
contol fields. Next, I use Polish and English language,
and I need only these docs and manuals. I don't want to
install i.e. Italian manuals from man-db package.
In some situations I don't need /usr/doc files. I can't remove
they pernamently because after upgrade they will install again.
dpkg miss --exclude <pattern> option and 'file classes', more
than conffiles. Sometimes I would like to install or upgrade
package without conffiles or documents.
dpkg has a problem with broken packages. i.e.:
I tried to install some package. It couldn't be installed because of
existing some file with another package. After all I had new
files from this package but couldn't uninstall these files.
APT-team done good job but it isn't normal if apt have to fixes
dpkg's errors.
This is a strange situation. The most important tool is the buggiest
piece of our software.
--
Piotr "Dexter" Roszatycki
mailto:dexter@fnet.pl
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