Re: "task" and beyond
On Wed, Feb 05, 2003 at 03:29:22AM -0800, Osamu Aoki wrote:
> My unelucidated thinking is if there is a field in control file which
> gives *attribute* of package, it will make things much more easy if
> package management tools use them properly. This is somewhat a extension
> of task field.
One attribute which I'd consider very useful: "auto-managed".
Typically, run-time libraries and *-common/*-data packages would be
declared "auto-managed". Such a package is not useful by itself, its
features are only used indirectly by other packages which depend on it.
A package selection tool would by default *not* list these packages. They'd
get pulled in by other packages, and maybe they'd be deinstalled
automatically once there are no other packages on the system which depend
on them.
This way, the number of displayed packages is cut down significantly, which
helps the user find his way through the list of packages. A quick grep
shows that about 25% of all packages could probably be declared
"auto-managed"!
(Further features would of course be nice: Override the attribute for
certain packages so they *are* listed / won't be auto-deinstalled; only
auto-deinstall if package has not been used for x days.)
Cheers,
Richard
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|_) /| Richard Atterer | CS student at the Technische | GnuPG key:
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