Autopackage for Ubuntu!

[Mike Hearn]

On Wed, 2005-02-02 at 11:29 -0500, Konstantin Ryabitsev wrote:
> Fine, this still doesn't handle the following situation:
> 
> 1. Install Foo, which requires libbar.
> 2. Install libbar.
> 3. Install Baz.
> 4. Go on a disk-cleaning spree and remove Baz and libbar, since you
> don't recall that Foo still needs it.
> 5. Foo breaks.

My experience is that people who go on random disk cleaning sprees tend
to be non-technical and are most likely to use the file manager or "rm -
rf" anyway. That said, while this feature of package managers has never
helped me much I agree that it's nice to have.

> Any system that doesn't have a central dependency tracking database
> for installs *AND* removes will eventually create more problems than
> it claims to solve.

I disagree. But the point is moot: autopackage provides a verify command
that will rerun the dep checks (and resolve them if possible) for any
given package you install using it, so if it breaks you can always
verify the install which may be able to repair it.

We also intend to register installs with the RPM and DPKG databases in
future to fix this exact problem, as well as the more thorny issues of
distro upgrades. No ETA for this feature. Patches are welcome, of
course.

thanks -mike