Bug#31311: [Various] Comments on Debian packages and installation
On Thu, Dec 31, 1998 at 10:03:48AM -0500, Adam Di Carlo wrote:
>
> Forwarding discussion of this bug from <debian-private>. I am pretty
> sure the contributors listed here are ok with forwarding this mail
> from private to the BTS. If not, so sorry.
Working on this for slink as I type. Just built a reference dpkg/dselect
and I am about to test these. Once I am certain I have a functional
dselect I will begin majing code changes.
I have already found the one RMS wants fixed wrt dselect making a missing
suggestion seem like a bigger deal than it is. I have already
established a strategy for fixing it and I just have to figure out the
layout of the structures for proper implementation of the fix. There's a
single line that I know what it does but I don't know what it does[1] and
I will have to figure that out. Once I determine what the code does and
how the structure is laid out, I should have a fix written in 5 minutes.
Of course give me an hour to make the fix actually compile and work
properly... =>
The other fix(es) for how Recommends/Suggests will be handled may or may
not be so easy. Probably because of what I will have to learn about C++
and the way dselect does things internally to fix the above easy problem,
it should not be terribly difficult. I learn fast.
What I'm going to do with it if I can is pretty much what rcw and a few
others want:
Suggests: Works much like it does now. Will NOT install by default
however it will bring up the "conflict resolution screen" with the "xxx
suggests yyy", the user will have to select it here if they want it.
Recommends: Works much like suggests does now. Will default to
installing the package but if the user decides not to install it they
will no longer be harassed by the program.
I am making these changes for slink's dpkg which may or may not be what
potato uses, I don't know. It's my recommendation that the first
(easier) fix I am working on that just changes the nature of the messages
for when a package is not available be included in slink, but that the
bigger change be held for potato. Too many packages that currently use
suggests would want to use recommends in the future. This also may
require a policy change, though those I have heard seem to think the
behavior I hope to code for dselect would be more sane than what it does
currently.
I will not NMU either of these but rather just provide the patches for
others to review.
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