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Re: Apt-get for users



On Saturday 05 April 2003 12:00 pm, Emile van Bergen wrote:
> Remember, we're not talking about users running their own mailspools or
> printqueues. In most cases it'll be desktop apps that don't need
> access to anything but /tmp/.X11-Unix and $HOME.

I think this is an important point.  Perhaps, in the future, if such packages 
as users might reasonably want to install were somehow marked as such - with 
"Package-Type: user-installable" or something similar - and (carefully) 
assembled accordingly, this could (someday) become standard functionality,
without requiring any source rebuilds or special packages.

There is little need to proxy filesystem access or deal with complicated 
ownership and permission issues on the simpler packages which are likely to 
be needed by regular users.

Other issues spring forth, however...   What if one user wants a package that 
has already been installed in another user's directory?  What if a user would 
need to upgrade system-installed packages to satisfy local dependancies?  
What about NFS?  Automatic thresholds to install packages system-wide, after 
a number of users have them?  The list goes on.

Despite all of the issues and possibilities, I think this is a very 
interesting concept.  I know it's been discussed before - I hope something 
becomes of it, this time around.  Good luck.

 - Keegan



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