Re: Automatically purging non-official packages
On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 11:13:07 -0400, Nikolaus Rath wrote:
> Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com> writes:
>>>>> Ubuntu has a "ppa-purge" script that not just removes Launchpad PPAs
>>>>> from sources.list, but also automatically reverts any packages
>>>>> installed from that PPA to the versions available in the official
>>>>> archives.
>>>>
>>>> The only idea scares me :-}
>>>
>>> Why?
>>
>> Package managing can be sometimes difficult to deal for an automated
>> routine and more that often needs human interaction.
>>
>> For instance, by default ppa-purge (or a similar script) is instructed
>> to remove non official versions of the packages in favor of the ones
>> available in Debian repositories.
>
> Indeed, that's its intended use.
Yup, and that's why I fear of such automatisms: they don't think what can
be better for you on every case but execute. I would like they can be a
bit more wise :-)
>> Fine, but reverting ffmpeg from D-M to the official version it can be
>> undesiderable or even break based on the current pining and priorities
>> (it can leave your system with mixed libraries from differenet
>> sources).
>
> If you don't want to revert to the official versions, then you shouldn't
> run a script whose purpose is to revert everything to the official
> versions.
For me it can be useful to collect a list of the packages installed from
a non-oficial source but I wouldn't rely on it to make any change.
> That is, however, not an argument against the usefulness of the script
> (or a reason to be scared of it).
To me, yes. But don't take it as if I am against *this* precisely script
because that's not the case. I also avoid performing unattended upgrades,
for instance. You can see it as "the old dog experience".
Greetings,
--
Camaleón
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