Re: Dpkg feature request

["David M. Cooke" <d.m.cooke@larc.nasa.gov>]

Bruce Perens wrote:
> I think this is _almost_ right. What you need is to copy the dpkg status
> file in a way that marks the packages as selected _but_not_installed_ on
> the second system. It would take a script to do this, because you don't want
> to take anything that got installed in the base and mark it as "selected but
> not installed". However, having the
> capability to make lists of selections and pass them around would be nice.
> Thus, I'll ask Ian Jackson. How about three flags to dpkg?
> 
>         --select package-name [package-name ...]
>                 Selects a list of packages for later installation.
>         --deselect package-name [package-name ...]
>                 De-selects a list of packages for later removal.
>         --list-selected
>                 Lists selected packages in a way suitable for inclusion in a list
>                 passed to --select.
> 
> There may well be flags to do this now, but I've missed them.
> This would allow you to set up the selections via a shell script or something,
> and then start dselect to fine-tune what you have selected.
> 
>         Thanks
> 
>         Bruce

This is a great idea!  Its exactly what I've been wishing for.  I'd be
able to get one system installed right and then cruise through the
installation of the other 29 systems here.

It would also be nice to have an option in dselect to pick this method
of selection.  Then if minor tweaks need to be made to what's selected
they can be done in the normal manor before proceeding with the install.
But this is just cosmetic.  The options you suggest would make me very
happy.

-- 
________________________________________________________________________
David M. Cooke                                   d.m.cooke@larc.nasa.gov