Re: Install only the needed *applications*

["Peter Ross" <peter.ross@miscrit.be>]

Marco wrote:
> Which one of these methods is best for script use right after
> installation, i.e.:
>
> No net access yet
> Only the official debian CDs available
> Minimum manual intervention (hopefully just
> changing the CD when asked?)
>
First you will need to tell apt to use the CDROMS to find packages,
apt-cdrom will take care of this for you.

Then just run, it will ask you to insert CDs when required.
apt-get install <package list>

> I am quite expert with red hat, and have started to study debian
> recently.
> One of the things I found most confusing is the relationship betweeen
> apt,
> dselect (?dpkg?) and what not. When do you use one or the other? Why?

For instance you wish to install vim, using apt-get install vim you will not
get the vim-rt package which contains some other various goodies for use
with vim.  This is because the vim package doesn't require vim-rt to run, it
just recommends it.  apt-get install will only install the required
packages.

dselect on the other hand is more user oriented.  When you select vim, it
will show you what is recommended and then get you to decide which of the
packages you wish to install (ie vim-rt).

Both apt-get and dselect only download the packages onto your system.  dpkg
is used by both apt-get and dselect to install the downloaded packages.

HTH,
Pete