Re: managing packages
>>>>> "Steve" == Steve Greenland <stevegr@debian.org> writes:
Steve> Then use dselect. This is no more a problem with apt-get
Steve> than it is with dpkg. Not to say that there aren't problems
Steve> with dselect...maybe aptitude or console-apt or gnome-apt
Steve> would be the right choice for you.
The problem with dselect, is often it it very difficult to get
dependancies correct, as (it is several weeks since a last used it so
I have forgotten the details):
- it makes decisions for you behind you back, eg if package a depends
on x or y, and package b conflicts with x, it is very difficult to try
and tell dselect that I never wanted x, but y installed, since y never
shows up on the conflict resolution screen. Instead, I have to
dselect a and/or b, then manually find x and y.
- even if I just want to install one package, eg gimp, I have to fix
up the dependancies for the rest of the system first. Perhaps this
is because I don't know any easy of of copying the list of installed
packages to the list of selected packages...
I have noticed some other weird stuff with dselect (ie it decisions
as to what packages conflict seems different to apt-get), but
never fully investigated them yet.
Steve> Track package that are selected only to satisfy a
Steve> "depends". When the last depender is removed, *offer* to
Steve> remove the dependee as well. This sounds like the Windows
Steve> DLL trick, but since I actually trust the Debian depends
Steve> system, I'd feel okay about. The admin needs to be able to
Steve> "upgrade" such packages to fully selected, in which case
Steve> they don't propose deselection.
Yes, that would be a good idea. You would have to have some way though
that the system administrator can say a "non-installed" package
depends on this package. How is this:
1. When removing or upgrading a package, apt-get automatically adds
all "depends", "recommends", and "suggests" packages to a remove-list.
2. For every package about to be installed (including upgrades) or
already installed, apt-get removes any packages listed in "depends",
"recommends" or "suggests" from the remove-list.
3. Any package that the system administrator wants to keep is removed
from the remove-list. Maybe remove packages from this list that are
labelled important/essential? What about obsolete important packages?
4. All packages from remove-list removed and/or purged.
Might be possible to optimize this.
Other things to think about:
1. If a package is installed manually, consider adding it automatically
to the override list used for step 3.
2. Some method to scan all packages for removal, not just the ones
affected by upgrades/removals?
3. A default override list supplied that Debian that lists end-user
applications that probably do not want to be removed automatically?
Or maybe a special header for this purpose?
Steve> (Even though I snipped it, I think the rules idea is cool,
Steve> but I doubt it's necessary for a reasonable solution to 3.)
Agreeed.
--
Brian May <bam@debian.org>
Reply to: