Re: Missing functions in debian's packaging system
Scott Barker wrote:
>
> As good as debian's package system is, I can't find any way to find out what
> packages depended upon a package which has been removed. For example, if I
> remove the communicator-smotif package, I'd like to be able to also remove the
> packages it depended upon. I know I could check the 'Depends:' line for a
> package before I remove it, but it would be nice if that information was
> included as part of the package removal process. Perhaps even an option to
> dpkg to remove a package and all packages that it depended on (as long as
> those packages are required by another package).
>
> It would also be nice if there was a command that could be used to look for a
> package based on a description (for example, I'd like to quickly find out
> which package gives me quake, or the realvideo player). I know that I can
> peruse the 'available' file for this information, but from a new users'
> perspective, there should be a more obvious way to do this.
>
> Finally, I was wondering if there were any efforts underway to merge RedHat's
> and Debian's package formats. Yes, I know 'alien' can handle rpms, but it
> can't handle conflicts in filenames and so forth between rpms and official
> debs. If the linux community could have a common package format (like we have
> a common kernel), it would allow users to mix and match packages from
> different sources (assuming there was some common base system). Maybe it's a
> pipe dream, but I think it would be neat to be able to change distributions
> just by installing a few packages.
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Then they would not really be "different distributions", would they?:-)
On a serious note though the notion of having a "common basic Linux/UNIX
distribution format" that all of the distro's can start from would be
great. Even if the proposed directory tree and dependencies was purely a
design tree and never existed anywhere, the uniformity would be of great
benefit to anyone porting software. That is in fact the original plan
for unix hence the common software libraries, devs, etc. A common
uniformly recognized directory tree and a common set of libs and
dependencies should exist. Come to think of it, they may already be
there but no one is using them. Anyone know??
--
John Foster
AdVance-Computing Systems
jfoster@augustmail.com
ICQ# 19460173
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