Re: "super" pkgs (was Re: Back to RedHat)
Daniel Martin wrote:
> Michael Stone <mstone@itri.loyola.edu> writes:
>
> > Quoting Federico Di Gregorio (fog@pcamb6.irfmn.mnegri.it):
> > > Yes. The problem of super-packages is that if you install, say, 20
> > > normal packages by a single "click", you expect to remove them the
> > > same way... Maybe we need to update dpkg/apt anyway...
> >
> > It wouldn't hurt to add that, but I think it can be done in a compatible
> > manner. That is, new versions of apt could support some kind of removal
> > option, but super packages would still work in older systems.
>
> I think I've heard this before - basically, that apt should keep track
> of what has been installed because it was necessary to satisfy
> dependencies and what has been installed and what has been installed
> by explicit user request.
At the risk of repeating myself, last week David Engel wrote:
> The second idea is for dselect (or apt or whatever) to either
> automatically or at least offer to remove packages which haven't been
> explicitly selected by the user when no other installed packages
> depend on them.
To which I replied:
Man, what a *great* idea.
Debian packages would need two levels of selection:
- user-specified : User has selected this package. It is kept at
upgrades.
A lot of such packages could be Super packages
mentionned above (C development, LaTeX typesetting,
etc)
- package-specified : Selected from a dependency from a user-specified
package (or, recursively, from a package-specified
dependency that started from a user-specified
package).
Debian package manager would be allowed and encouraged
to remove these packages if no user-specified package
requires it.
Note that we need an easy way to `upgrage' the status of a
package-specified selection to that of a user-specified one. I may not
want emacs20 removed if I decide to remove auctex. I therefore need a
method to notice that emacs20 is not user-specified to to change that.
I can imagine a drag-and-drop package selection tool. All packages on one
side. Use picks up a package and drops it on the other side. It appears
in a normal font because it's user-specified. At the same time, a bunch of
other packages are moved to the `install' side, but they are shaded. They
are the package-specified dependencies...
--
Peter Galbraith, research scientist <GalbraithP@dfo-mpo.gc.ca>
Maurice Lamontagne Institute, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada
P.O. Box 1000, Mont-Joli Qc, G5H 3Z4 Canada. 418-775-0852 FAX: 775-0546
6623'rd GNU/Linux user at the GNU/Linux Counter -- http://counter.li.org/
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