<br><br> <div> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid"><br>Message: 3<br>Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 15:30:07 +0100<br>From: MadMan2k <<a href="mailto:madman2k@gmx.de"> madman2k@gmx.de</a>><br>Subject: Packaging improvements<br>To: <a href="mailto:ubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com">ubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com</a><br>Message-ID: <<a href="mailto:43CCFF6F.2050205@gmx.de">43CCFF6F.2050205@gmx.de </a>><br>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed<br><br>As far as I can see you are considering some packaging system updates.<br>I think it would be a good idea to collect all possible improvements to<br> introduce a bunch of them at one.<br><br>up to now I've seen the following:<br><br>- better package compression (7zip?)<br>- delta debs<br>- auto dependency removement<br><br>now I'd like to add<br>- customizable meta packages <br><br>there is already a problem with ubuntu-desktop being removed if the user<br>uninstalls only one of the "core" applications like evolution.<br>So obviously that metapackage has to be more flexible.<br><br> So why not doing it right from the start and giving the user the ability<br>to create his own metapackages.<br><br>Use case:<br>John wants to compile something.<br>he creates a "i-want-to-compike-something" metapackage and the following <br>install operations will be saved as a dependancy of it.<br><br>Now John realizes that compiling sucks and he rather wants to stick to<br>binary packages - all he has to do is uninstalling<br>"i-want-to-compile-something" and his system will be as clean as before. <br><br>M2k<br></blockquote> <div>Hi All, </div> <div> </div> <div>Generalizing the idea of "customizable meta packages" I would add also "the possibility for the user to select a set of packages which he likes to have installed, and those to be written in his /home partition". The idea is that if the person upgrades to the next version of Ubuntu he should be able to very easily restore the state of the previous installation. I know that this can be achieved with a small script with several lines of apt-get, but it is not always the most user-friendly format. </div> <div>Perhaps a good idea will be from within synaptic the user to be able to select some installed packages, mark them and make them a 'group' or 'metapackage'. Then this group to be saved where the user specifies. Later, this 'group' could be loaded into synaptic and the package manager will automatically downloa/install the needed packages. </div> <div> </div> <div>Just an idea. </div> <div> </div> <div>Stefan</div><br> </div>