[ On Thursday, January 9, 2003 at 12:20:32 (-0800), Jeremy C. Reed wrote: ]
> Subject: everything is a dependency and preventing removal
>
> I am using pkgsrc as a complete operating system, in other words, it
> provides a kernel, glibc (and other libs), gcc, binutils, important shell
> utils, tar (or alternative), ftp client, et cetera.
> 
> Can anyone share an ideas, experiences or examples of other operating
> system packaging tools for preventing accidental removal of important
> packages?
> 
> For example, pkg_add may need tar, maybe gzip libs, maybe ftp, and maybe
> some basic shell utils.

All I can say is that the way pkgsrc iteslf does this now (by not
registering the installed package) is completely bogus.

> I guess a few packages could use some identifier indicating that they
> should never be permanently removed, but only updated.

Until pkg_install acquires some better way to deal with obsoleted files
(i.e. other than hacks possible now with INSTALL scripts and whatnot)
there's no way to do proper "updates" of packages -- only removes and
adds.

Ideally package updates should be easily revertable too -- especially if
the update breaks half way through.  Such a revert operation might have
to be done by hand for some packages of course....

-- 
								Greg A. Woods

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