Desperately trying to understand dselect (seeming inconsistency)

["Michael Marziani" <michaelm@kw.com>]

I finally took the dselect plunge.  Aptitude is far easier, but I heard
dselect can be more effective once it's mastered.

Ok..  For some strange reason dselect had a bunch of crap selected that
I have no idea where it came from when I first entered dselect after a
brand new minimum install.  So I'm trying to un-select it all (D didn't
work because it was previously selected), but when I try to un-select
something that recommends another package, it won't let me unless I
remove the other package, which in some cases is something I already
have installed.

Here's an example.  I have vim installed.  When I started dselect, it
had vim-rt selected (but not installed).  So when I try to un-select
vim-rt, I get a dependency resolution screen that looks like:

EIOM Pri Section  Package      Description
  *- Opt editors  vim-rt       Vi IMproved - runtime support files
 **- Opt editors  vim          Vi IMproved - enhanced vi editor

Well I want to keep vim, so I do a + on it, and hit enter, well then I
get another dependency resolution screen:

EIOM Pri Section  Package      Description
  -* Opt editors  vim-rt       Vi IMproved - runtime support files
 *** Opt editors  vim          Vi IMproved - enhanced vi editor

But I don't want vim-rt, so I - it, and hit enter, and I get the same
screen again.  What's the deal here?  Does recommend = require in
deb-speak?  If so something is messed up, because when I first installed
vim I just did an apt-get install vim, and all it installed was vim, no
prompting for vim-rt or anything.

Someone please explain.  I very much want to understand this system, but
it seems like apt-get and dselect are being inconsistent.

Thanks!!

-Mike

_____________________________
Michael D. Marziani
Systems Administrator


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