Re: dselect (or apt) wish list (fwd)
Michael Beattie (mickyb@es.co.nz) wrote...
> > 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', or
> > else it be made possible to change the default via a config file. I really
> > hate having a single keypress be able to wipe out days of downloading.
[...]
> Bottom line: this is a very small and easy-to-grant wish, but for those who
> want it, it's a big, hard-to-get-around problem. i.e. it prevents me from
> using apt, since apt deletes installed packages automatically; and with
> dselect, I have to be *extremely* careful I don't press the enter key at the
> wrong time, when it asks to delete the packages.
I think that the point is that most (99%?) of the people using both
tools DON'T want to keep files, so having it default to keeping them
would mean that a lot of newbies - who just select defaults without
necessarily understanding - would fill up their hard drives with
un-needed files.
Perhaps a command-line switch "--dont-delete-packages" or something
like that would be a good addition, that way people who want to keep
them can easily do so (and can set up an alias so they don't have to
type it each time), and those that don't want to keep packages just
keep going as usual.
If I didn't already have Way Too Many projects going, I'd make a patch
but I'm waaaaaaaay overrun!
bekj
PS
I grok your concept of wanting to keep things. When I'm fiddling with
a new distribution I usually do a "scratch install" then fiddle and poke
until I understand it ... then start again and re-install. That way
breaking things isn't a problem.
--
: --Hacker-Neophile-Eclectic-Geek-Grrl-Gay-Disabled-Boychick--
: gossamer@tertius.net.au http://www.tertius.net.au/~gossamer/
: Computers are very sophisticated idiots.
: -- The Doctor, 'Doctor Who'
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