[vox-tech] Apt-get vs. Dselect

[Ken Bloom]

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 12:10:47 -0800
Matt Roper <matt at mattrope.com> wrote:

> On Fri, Mar 11, 2005 at 01:51:39PM -0500, Peter Jay Salzman wrote:
> ... regarding aptitude/dselect/apt-get interface ...
> > I've never heard, met or read about anybody who prefers the TUI
> > interface to the CLI interface.
> 
> I use the TUI interface most of the time and only use the CLI
> interface if I want to grab a single, specific package.  There are a
> couple advantages that aptitude's TUI interface and dselect have over
> the CLI interface (IMO):
> 
>  * I can easily see a list of the "new" packages available in the
>  Debian
>    repository (I track the unstable branch).  Several times I'll see
>    a new package, think "hey, that sounds cool!" and install it even
>    though it wasn't something I was specifically looking for.  As far
>    as I know, there's no way to get a list of the newly available
>    packages and their detailed descriptions with apt-get or with
>    aptitude's CLI interface.
> 
>  * I like getting a list of packages that are going to be upgraded so
>    that I can quickly check changelogs for the packages I'm worried
>    about and put them on hold (you can do this from aptitude's CLI
>    also, but it's a couple extra steps).
> 
>  * Building on the last point, it's slightly easier to see if packages
>    that you put on hold have a new upgrade available beyond the
>    problematic version.  If so, I can check the changelog quickly and
>    decide whether to remove the hold or not.
> 
> So I guess now you do know of someone who prefers the TUI interface.
> :-)

I use the TUI interface of aptitude for a few things:
 * Removing kernels when I have 3 old ones lying around. It's easier to
   search for them and then have all of the old kernels listed right
   next to each other than it is to type in all of the version numbers.

 * Resolving upgrade conflicts. Apt-get can usually do very well with
   upgrades, but occasionally there is an upgrade that has some packages
   that want to remove lots of stuff (which I want to keep) while having
   other packages that won't get upgraded without pulling in new stuff.
   Neither apt-get dist-upgrade or apt-get upgrade will handle these the
   way I want it, but the TUI lets me specify exactly which packages to
   upgrade and which ones not to. (Without having to wait for sid to
   sort itself out to get the packages that aren't broken)

So I've been an apt-get user for a few years. Anybody know how to make
the transition to aptitude and have it do something sane as regards
automatically and manually installed packages? (So far I've been running
debfoster periodically to trim obsolete packages).

--Ken Bloom

-- 
I usually have a GPG digital signature included as an attachment.
See http://www.gnupg.org/ for info about these digital signatures.
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://ns1.livepenguin.com/pipermail/vox-tech/attachments/20050311/2424bc2b/attachment.bin