Re: dpkg -l format

[Joost Kooij <joost@pc47.mpn.cp.philips.com>]

Hi,

On Tue, 5 Oct 1999, Colin Walters wrote:

> The output format of dpkg -l is terrible.  Many package names exceed
> the measly 16 characters allotted.  Many, many times when trying to
> remove packages that have long strings of dependencies, I have
> to grep /var/lib/dpkg/status, and remove things by hand, when
> what I really want to do is dpkg -l '*netscape*' | xargs dpkg --purge.

My understanding of what you _want_ to do is to remove netscape, and
possibly all that depends on netscape.

What you _could_ do is:

1. Start dselect;
2. Choose "Select";
3. Type "/netscape";
4. If this does not bring you to the flavor/version of netscape
   that you have installed and want to remove then simply hit
   the "\" key until you get there;
5. Type "-" or hit the [delete] key;
6. Dselect will enter dependency/conflict resolution mode, you are 
   shown a list of packages relating through dependencies or conflicts.
   if all is right, dselect has already selected all depending packages
   for removal;
7. Hit the [enter] key to leave dependency/conflict resolution mode;
8. Hit the [enter] key to leave selection mode;
9. Choose "Remove";
10.Choose "Quit".

Everybody seems to forget what a great tool dselect still is, especially
when using apt as "dselect method".

Cheers,


Joost