Please try to get it right in future

[John]

Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 19, 2004 at 09:46:00AM +0800, John wrote:
> 
> 
>>I've noticed that dpkg is prone to running out of disk space. In 
>>contrast, rpm checks first, and if it dont' fit it won't try.
> 
> 
> apt already performs such a check, but it can't be more than a simple sanity

I did say dpkg:-)

I do remember apt saying how much disk space is required. I also recall 
having some difficulty getting updates installed because there wasn't 
enough space for the whole batch and I got stuck half way. I don't 
recall apt-get saying "too hard."

I specifically nominated dpkg because it's the debian equivalent to rpm 
and provides broadly equivalent functionality.

The Red Hat equivalent to apt-get is up2date (more recently yum has been 
added, and apt-get is certainly in some other rpm-using distroes if not 
in RH).

> check, since the amount of space required to install a package can vary:
> 
> - From one system to the next, due to differing block sizes, etc.
> - From one package to the next, or even one install run to the next,
>   depending on maintainer scripts and the state of the system
> 
> 
>>It's a something someone should add sometime:-)
> 
> 
> If it has some mechanism for determining a priori the amount of disk
> space which will be required, I am interested in the design.  If not, it
> probably isn't doing anything that we don't already do.


I have noticed that rpms (the packages) don't do as much stuffing round 
after installation as debs do (yes, I'm generalising). Where debs' 
scripts make symlinks, in RH rpms (I really don't know what other 
vendors do, so I'm talking solely of RH) the symlinks are included in 
the package. Some debs seem to generate config files, and this can make 
space harder to estimate.

I seem to have quite a few files on Debian that are not owned by a 
package: in RHL this should not happen unless to user creates them.

rpm has several nice features that would be handing in dpkg. Something 
that would have bene _extremely_ handy the other day is something 
quivalent to
rpm -Va
which would validate all packages on the system, checking for file 
changes and permsissions changes. rpm maintains checksums for every 
file: if I edit /usr/bin/debmirror then rpm would highlight that. 
Somewhat like tripwire.

Possibly the intruder could have worked round that, but it is another 
hurdle, and he fell pretty badly anyway.