Re: dselect (or apt) wish list

[Helge Hafting <helge.hafting@daldata.no>]

> On 11 Nov 1998q, Jiri Baum wrote:
> > Hello Zack Brown <zbrown@lynx.neu.edu>,
> > 
> > > 3) At the end of the "install" phase, dselect asks if it should delete
> > > installed packages. I suggest that either the default be changed to 'no'
> > ...
> > 
> > Well, once you've installed them, you usually don't need them any more.
> > 
> 
> Can you clarify this please? I thought this choice was the equivalent of 
> dpkg --remove. I've never dared use it again since it once started removing all
> kinds of things I had installed.
> 

dselect deletes the package files.  You don't need those unless you
plan on reinstalling the same packages again.  Most people don't
need that unless they have several machines.  You don't usually fix
debian problems by reinstalling - unlike windows.

dpkg --remove  doesn't deal with package files.  It removes 
the installed software, i.e. the binaries and manpages
unpacked from the package file.  The package files aren't used
by installed the software, they are used for distributing
software as well as  the information the package management system need.

Helge Hafting