Re: Bug#228222: dpkg shouldn't depend on dselect

[Santiago Vila <sanvila@unex.es>]

On Sat, 17 Jan 2004, Graham Knap wrote:

> Package: dpkg
> Version: 1.10.18
>
> I've never understood why dpkg depends on dselect.
>
> I always just run "apt-get" or "dpkg" from the commandline; no offense
> to the author of dselect, but I really just don't like dselect.
> (And I know many other people who agree with me.)
>
> I can see why you might want to have dselect installed by default on a
> new Debian system -- for the same reason you'd install tasksel.
>
> But I don't really need it, so I'd like to be able to remove it.

The reason is explained in dpkg changelog:

  * Split dselect into its own package. dpkg Pre-Depends on it
    to make sure no weird things happen during an upgrade but this
    will allow us to make dselect option at some point in the future.

So you have just to be a little bit more patient. It is the current status,
as strange as it might seem, what will allow dselect and dpkg to be really
independent packages after the release of sarge.