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Re: dselect vs apt



On Fri, Nov 19, 1999 at 07:23:14AM +0700, Oki DZ wrote
> 
> 
> Urban Gabor wrote:
> > 
> > Though it might be a lamer question, I would like to know the major
> > differences between dselect and apt. 
> 
> dselect is menu based, and apt is command-line based.
> dselect is slightly confusing, and apt is pretty straightforward.
> 
> I think xdselect (if there's any such thing) would be a lot neater than
> dselect.
> 
> >I do not upgrade my boxes via ftp, I
> > allways (more or less :-)) ) wait till the new release is assembled in CD
> > images. Why would I switch to apt?
> 

Apt is better at package ordering - sometimes, depending on what you've
selected, dselect takes a couple of passes to get everything in.

Apt is smarter and faster - most dselect methods work through the entire
package list ("skipping kernel-header-2.0.33\nskipping etc. etc."), apt 
works through only those packages that will be installed or removed. 

Apt is more flexible - with apt you can use CDs, FTP sites and local package
repositories as sources in a single operation, and apt will seamlessly get
the packages you select from wherever is most convenient (based on the order
in which the sources appear in /etc/apt/sources.list).

Dselect can do apt, but apt can't do dselect - Apt provides a dselect access
method, so you can do all your source configuration with apt and then get
the benefit of both the unified, screen-oriented dselect interface you're
used to and the convenience of just going (e.g.)
 # apt-get install xemacs20
when you want to install a new package. 


John P.
-- 
huiac@camtech.net.au
john@huiac.apana.org.au
"Oh - I - you know - my job is to fear everything." - Bill Gates in Denmark


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