[SWLUG] RE: Package management

[justin at discordia.org.uk]

On 21 Jan, Emyr42 . wrote:
> To conclude:
> What I want added to Linux installers:
> Decent Intro screen
Why add more bulk to a package just to include some pretty graphics
which wont be used most of the time as the majority of package installs
happen during system install, or by automatic updates.

if you really want to know what a package is that you have downloaded,
the info is there, certainly in rpm it is, try 'rpm -qi -p package.rpm'
miss the -p off for an already installed package.
you can likewise get a list of the files it will install with -ql

If you are installing via some gui program then its up to that software
how it chooses to display the info, but its there.

> Options instead of multiple package
ignoring the automated install aspects of above, how do you deal with
the dependancies in a sane way. 'this package depends on that one, but
only if the user ticked this or this box' it will just get out of hand.
 
> I know having individual packages reduces download size (if you know what 
> each package is for) but imagine if microsoft had made Office for -ux. Would 
> there have been an optional package for the paperclip(aaaaargh!) or would it 
> have been bundled in with the accessories or help package?
Windows is very limited in the way you can use and adapt it when
compared to a linux system, a windows system is always a graphical
windows system, where as a linux system might be a graphical desktop, a
workgroup server, or a minimalist firewall/router, and many packages
come in client, server, and gui sub-parts. 

Think for a moment how that affects system installers, say your trying
to make a small lean firewall distribution for example, so you gather
together all the text mode service packages you need, but now in your
scheme they also include all the gui mode variants, and the obtuse
foreign languages, and other bells and whistles, and each of those has
further dependancies for windowing systems, fonts, images, all sorts of
extra guff, and very quickly your back to shipping an install cd the
size of a fully loaded desktop version, and probably installing as much
too.


So, i say its just fine the way it is. The installer tools already make
it pretty easy for you, for eample if you ask yum or apt to install the
gui part of some program for you, it will download it, and all the base
parts and other dependancies it needs and install them all for you, its
not so hard.