On May 5, 2011 7:55 PM, "Chris Brennan" <xaero@xaerolimit.net> wrote:
>
> I've a headless server running Debian 6 and I am curious if there is a way to restrict what gets pulled in
>
> Example #1 Gentoo: USE="-X" will effectively stop all X/X-related libs from being installed and the package manager there will fail, telling you why.
> Example #2 FreeBSD: X="NO" (YES/NO/TRUE/FALSE valid respectively) WITHOUT_X="YES" (YES/NO/TRUE/FALSE valid respectively) for a similar result as Gentoo, FreeBSD will install some X libs silently when absolutely necessary and while undesirable, this is acceptable.
>
> Does something like this exist in Debian? I want to be able to install things or have someone else install things they are told to like the good monkey they are but I don't want the system to become bogged down with needless X/X-related dependencies or for them to blindly install gnome for example ...
>
Yeah, sorta. Not as nice as gentoo, bsd, or even slackware. However, look at apt.conf - it doesn't exist, you'll have to create it and tell it not to install suggested or recommended deps.
I've actually considered using a system with a more robust package management system for my dev box. As other packages require perl and some of the modules but when I do an upgrade it messes up the modules I've installed from cpan. I think you should be ok with deb for keeping most of x off your system ymmv.