* Oki DZ (okidz@pindad.com) [020528 23:33]:
> On 2002.05.29 09:02 Michael D. Crawford wrote:
> >I'm not so happy with what I've experienced with OS X installers so
> >far, although maybe it's because the writer of the installer scripts
> >didn't make the effort to make them flexible.
> >
> >For example, the installer for the OS X developer documentation only
> >gives you the option to install everything, rather than allowing you
> >to select doc for the different APIs (java, cocoa, carbon, device
> >drivers - the whole thing is installed),
This is almost certainly, as you suspect, the package maintainer's
fault, and not the fault of the packaging system proper, unless it's the
case that the packaging system doesn't allow the package to ask whether
certain parts and not others should be installed. Of course, debian's
packaging system does things a little differently, splitting packages up
into their respective components (i.e. -doc -dev -gnome -gtk -common)
instead of asking at install time which parts of a package to install.
Probably the reason for this is that it's easier to automate; more data
is stored in the list of installed packages rather than in some
installation registry, so duplicating installs is easier this way, too.
> Strange... long ago, I used NeXT, and I could choose what parts of the
> packages to install. Has the installer gone worse...?
>
> >and it can only be installed on the root filesystem.
>
> Shouldn't it work just like that? APT does that too.
Well, strictly speaking, apt never unpacks/installs anything -- dpkg
does. But it can be told to install elsewhere; see the following options
in dpkg(8):
--root=dir | --admindir=dir | --instdir=dir
> >On the other hand, my Mac checks for updates each time it starts up,
> >and there is a nice UI for obtaining them. It would be nice if there
> >were a way that this version checker could be told to check for
> >updates from alternate sources. Maybe there is, I don't know.
>
> Debian doesn't do this, I believe; having a check-updates options would
> be nice, I think. So that apt-get could be run every time the system
> gets booted, and then giving you notices about newer packages.
First, make sure you have
echo 'Apt::Get::Show-Upgraded "true";' >> /etc/apt/apt.conf
Then, put these in a cron job to run them daily, weekly, &c, or in an
initscript to run each boot:
apt-get update
apt-get -s dist-upgrade
good times,
Vineet
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