Bug#82725: ITP: pkgset-tools, pkgset-tools-gnome
Package: wnpp
Severity: normal
Package sets are an alternative to task packages that we came up
when we ran into the limitations of task packages with Progeny
Debian. One of the biggest problems with task packages is
installing your system with them and later trying to remove
something (say, xterm). You get an error because
task-x-window-system is still installed. If you remove the task
package, you lose future updates to it.
To avoid this, package sets are simply files containing a list
of packages. These files are conffiles, so you can change the
contents of a set however you like.
pkgset-tools contains what were originally going to be the start
of Python bindings to libapt-pkg, the pkgset Python module, and a
very primitive and basic command-line tool, apt-pkgset. When i
learned that apt 0.4 already contains Python bindings, i stopped
worrying about making my python-apt usable outside the pkgset
module. python-apt will disappear when apt 0.4 is released.
pkgset-tools-gnome contains gnome-apt-pkgset (a GNOME interface
to package sets), gnome-dpkg-reconfigure (a GNOME interface to
the Debconf system, not the same as our configlets, which will be
in a separate ITP), and gsu-helper (a secure way to run a program
as root in a graphical environment, which will eventually move
into a separate package with similar interfaces to passwd,
adduser, and friends).
If you want to try these out, source is available at
http://archive.progeny.com/dists/progeny/main/source/admin/
and binaries at
http://archive.progeny.com/dists/progeny/main/binary-i386/admin/
These packages work on unstable, probably work on testing, and
won't work on stable.
Both packages are Copyright (C) 2000 Progeny Linux Systems, Inc.
and are released under the GNU GPL.
--
Eric Gillespie, Jr. <*> epg@progeny.com
Software Developer
Progeny Linux Systems - http://progeny.com
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