Looking at Package Management for Karmic or Karmic+1

[Martin Olsson]

Mackenzie Morgan wrote:
> If you download and install everything that has 0 dependencies first, then the 
> ones that depend on those things, and on up the tree, it could be doable. 
> Except for cyclical dependencies. For those, you'd need to get both downloaded 
> before running dpkg on them.

Downloading everything with 0 dependencies first would be better than today but
far from optimal. The algorithm should focus on keeping both the network and the
CPU/HDD at the highest possible utilization rate at all times.

Another way would be an algorithm that considered the total number of bytes that needs
to be downloaded for each package (the DEB itself plus all dependent DEBs) and then start
with the one that has the least total size. This way you can start the installation
as fast as possible.


		Martin