Re: Recommends?

[Behan Webster <behanw@verisim.com>]

Jason Gunthorpe wrote:
> 
> Behan,
> 
> Could you clarify what deity is going to do for suggests and recommends? I
> know they will be shown when the package node is expanded in the tree, but
> will there be any sort of automatic installation [like with depends] with
> either or will they both become the same?
> 

I wrestled with this problem before, and what I came up with is this. 
In the user preferences section there should be options that allow the
user to select whether they want any of depends/recommends/suggests to
be installed automatically.  I would suggest shipping with depends on
and recommends/suggests off, but ultimately it's the user's choice.

I figure, instead of giving it a static meaning (as in the way dselect
treats it), we use the depends/recommends/suggests classifications to
suggest the relative desireability of also having a related package
installed (I think this was the original point of these headers).  Of
course turning off auto-installing depends is IMHO kind of silly (as it
kinda defeats a lot of what makes deity useful), I think I can see some
people might wanting to do so.

Other than that, of course as with the other packages, since the
del/keep/inst buttons will remain in the same place the user placed them
the last time, if the user chooses not to install the package this time,
it will default to not installing it next time as well.

Does that answer your question?

Behan

-- 
Behan Webster     mailto:behanw@verisim.com
+1-613-224-7547   http://www.verisim.com/