[Sussex] DPKG-GET

[Steve Dobson]

Hi

On 4 Dec 2002 Angelo Servini wrote:
> Here's a thought

What out beyond here lie dragons :-)

> APT-get searches for libraries on the web, right?

Not-quite it gets them from a number of places, dir, cdrom, ftp server
or a http server.  The places it looks are configured in
/etc/apt/sources.list

> Could'nt DPKG be modified so we could do a DPKG-GET? where instead of
> listing unresolved references, it would look at certain pre-configured
> web addresses say in a dpkg.conf file.  Then the problem of looking for
> endless lists of subordinate DEB files would be solved.

dpkg installs packages from the locale (or network) file-system.  apt-get
fetchs the file (from where-ever) to /var/spool/apt/cache and then calls
dpkg to install them.  dpkg has some old code in it for getting from CD-ROM
or a file but that's left over from the days before apt.

> How about doing it as a group project for the LUG?

Debian internal stuff in strongly designed and talked about on debian-devel.
Any new features a written (mostly) by debian developers, tested and rolled
out.  The LUG would have problems getting a new approach accepted into 
Debian cold.

If you're intrestted in helping Debian then subscript to debian-devel
(WARNING: high trafic on that list), you don't have to be a debian developer
to subscribe.

Steve (A Debian Developer)