App installer design: click packages

[Emmet Hikory]

Colin Watson wrote:
> On Mon, May 13, 2013 at 08:30:16PM +0400, Alex M wrote:
> > I hope to see restore functionality (if we want to reset package to
> > defaults and restore missing files).
> 
> The unpacked package directory will not be writable by the ordinary user
> or the application directly, and should therefore not change.  As such,
> I don't think a restore feature should be necessary.

    For those users who might need such a thing (e.g. partial loss of data
from recoverably damaged secondary storage), wouldn't a reinstall of the
relevant package work?  dpkg is usually happy to overwrite files for the same
package, and I don't see anything in the current code on launchpad that ought
prevent this method working.  I've certainly used the equivalent for normal
packages in such situations in the past (although in practice, it is typically
less painful to reinstall for significant recoverable damage).

-- 
Emmet HIKORY