Date: Wed, 10 Jul 2002 15:14:59 +0700 From: Alexey Dokuchaev <danfe@regency.nsu.ru> To: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> Cc: arch@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Package system wishlist Message-ID: <20020710151459.A20701@regency.nsu.ru> In-Reply-To: <3D2BE142.E25CA9BC@mindspring.com>; from tlambert2@mindspring.com on Wed, Jul 10, 2002 at 12:24:50AM -0700 References: <3D2BE142.E25CA9BC@mindspring.com>
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On Wed, Jul 10, 2002 at 12:24:50AM -0700, Terry Lambert wrote:
> So, following Jordan's advice, what's on everyone's wishlist?
>
> Terry's Wishlist:
>
> o I don't want to download unnecessary information over a slow
> link, because PacBell won't put a DSLM on the end of a fiber
> optic cable in my area in order to service the 3000 apartments
> full of Oracle and other big company engineers whose companies
> would automatically pay them a nice monthly fee.
Agreed.
>
> o I want to know how long it's going to take to download all
> the package and package dependencies for what I've asked to
> be installed
This is kinda nice to have, but far not essential IMHO.
>
> o I want to answer all the questions at once, in a marathon
> session, and then have everything "just work" afterwards
> (front loading user configuration)
True. I'll also add:
o I don't want to less through Makefile in order to find out what
possible options (-DWITH[OUT]_SOMETHING) a port might accept.
The idea of using /usr/bin/dialog, like used in net/samba and
graphics/mplayer-skins ports, seems neat to me.
>
> o I want to know that an individual part is good, if I can
> download parts of a package (I don't care if this means
> that the modern FTP/HTTP range approaches are used, or if
> things are stored in sperate files)
I'll probably won't care much.
>
> o I'd like there to be one thing to download, so that when
> I get outside an area with cheap broadband communications,
> I can still get the work done
Sounds useful (at least for some of us).
>
> o I want to have a distinction between "necessary" and
> "sufficient", so that if I have pbm 1.2.3 installed, I
> don't end up with pbm 1.6.9 installed, too, if 1.2.3
> would have been sufficient
Very, very true. I was really annoyed when devel/gettext-old changed
their libintl suffix from .1 to 2. After patching some Makefiles, I
gave up and ended up installing second one on top of another, followed
by `pkgdb -F'. Gee! That's definitely something that I do not want to
happen again.
>
> o I'd like "one click install" of packages from a web site
> or a set of websites. This implies:
>
> o Cryptographic signatures
> o A different file extension that's not already
> supported by a browser or Apache
> o Modifications to the default FreeBSD Apache to
> set content transfer encoding for a binary file
> type
> o Modifications of the default "MIME Types" file
> on FreeBSD to reference an installation tool for
> the selected extension name
> o A tool to do the installing
Oh well, I don't care much. Moreover, making new ports/package system
TOO smart might get really annoying (not to mention potential bugginess)
for end-users/admins.
>
> o I want the option of having pretty progress bars that are
> actually meaningful (e.g. "Time remaining: 00:22:31")
That's like bells and whistles already. 8-)
>
> o I want to have a command that can tell me everything that
> didn't come out of a package (this includes things that did
> come out of a package, but were replaced by some cracker or
> by mistake, etc.)
Sounds OK.
>
> o I want "blind packages"; these are packages that are
> depended upon by another package and not explicitly installed
> by a user. When all the packages that depend on it are
> removed (dependency count goes from 1->0), I want the system
> to not_remove/automatically_remove/offer_to_remove the blind
> package
Sounds nice. "Offer-to-remove" seems to be the most reasonable.
>
> o I want to be able to remove system components, like "sendmail"
> and "OpenSSH".
Actually, I like the idea of "base system", so it does not belong to any
port or package. And I never had anything against having sendmail,
OpenSSH, or whatever in the base. Well, maybe with one exception of yp*
tools. :-) :-)
>
> o Eventually, I want to be able to not install system components
> in the first place (e.g. it should be possible to do a "PicoBSD"
> with the standard tools).
Well, maybe.
>
> o I want to know how much disk space I have, vs. how much it's
> going to take to install something, so I can decide whether I
> really want it or not.
Seems not so useful, but it might be just me. ;-)
>
> o I want the "installed components" list to be accurate after an
> initial system install ("/bin/ls" is a comonent).
>
> o I want the "installed components" list to be accurate after a
> "make installworld".
While on these, I'd like to mention that it would be really nice if,
after installing the world, I could be sure that any file that was
removed from installation (that is, it would not appear in a clean
DESTDIR), could be removed from original (/) as well (since it's a
left-over from previous world).
>
> o I want an "Add/Remove" software icon in the KDE control panel,
> just like Windows has.
I assume you are kidding us on this one, Terry, right??
./danfe
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