[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: A simple problem with dselect ...



"Richard B. Talley" <olny@nmia.com> writes:

> Nebu John Mathai <mathai@ecf.utoronto.ca> writes this day 25 Feb 98:
> 
> > I tried to remove a package and under "Select..." selected to remove the
> > package. Then I went to "Remove..." and dselect removed almost every
> > package I had installed since the beginning (including the one I had
> > asked it for).
> > 
> > I know I'm doing something stupid ... I just don't know what it is.
> 
> It's not your  stupidity but the computer's, or rather its lack of 
> a sense of context for your request.
> 
> The remove command removes all selected programs.
> 
> The install command installs all selected programs AND removes programs 
> currently installed that have been deselected by the user.
> 
> Therefore to remove *one* package only, deselect that one package and 
> choose *install*. This makes sense but only if you think like a computer.

This is completely wrong.

Dselect can only change the desired status of a package to:

desired status       keystroke in dselect's "select" point 
--------------       -------------------------------------
install				+
remove				-
purge [1]			_ (underscore)
hold  [2]			=

[1] remove also the config files
[2] usefull when  you want to assure that dselect won't alter the
status automaticly (like this is done if you do "update" in dselect and a
package is a "required" package for example).

When you exit the "select" stage, you can do:

1. "install" -> dselect calls dpkg, which will install all files which
                have the desired status "install"

2. "configure" -> dselect calls dpkg, which will configure all packages
		  of the status unconfigured (due to a dependency problem
		  in a prior run of install for example)

3. "remove" -> dselect calls dpkg, which will remove/purge all packages
	       which have the desired status of remove/purge

So if dpkg starts to remove all packages you have installed, they have
been marked with "remove" or "purge".

As someone said before, you most likely pressed - or _ on one of the
"headers" like "up to date packages".

Ciao,
	Martin


--
TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to
debian-user-request@lists.debian.org . 
Trouble?  e-mail to templin@bucknell.edu .


Reply to: