[Apt-Rpm] multiple good providers, how does apt pick the right one?

[Vincent Danen]

* [2008-03-06 08:44:43 -0700] Vincent Danen wrote:

>>> ...and here's the first rough-cut of the C++ callback approach this time 
>>> batter^H^H^H^H^H^H patch included.
>>>
>>> There are all sorts of nitty details to sort out, such as dealing with -y 
>>> and it's variants in semi-intelligent manner and probably some more 
>>> fundamental issues too but at least you'll get to play around with it a 
>>> bit.
>>>
>>> Haven't done any extensive testing, just some basic "seems to do what 
>>> intended" runs so watch out for any falling pieces :)

Just tested it and I like!  =)

Old stable:

[vdanen at build SPECS]$ apt-get install task-mail
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
   courier-base courier-imap courier-pop perl-Archive-Tar perl-Geography-Countries perl-IO-Socket-SSL perl-IO-Zlib perl-IP-Country
   perl-Mail-SPF-Query perl-Mail-SpamAssassin perl-Net-CIDR-Lite perl-Net-DNS perl-Net-Ident perl-Sys-Hostname-Long perl-version procmail re2c
   spamassassin spamassassin-spamd
The following NEW packages will be installed:
   courier-base courier-imap courier-pop perl-Archive-Tar perl-Geography-Countries perl-IO-Socket-SSL perl-IO-Zlib perl-IP-Country
   perl-Mail-SPF-Query perl-Mail-SpamAssassin perl-Net-CIDR-Lite perl-Net-DNS perl-Net-Ident perl-Sys-Hostname-Long perl-version procmail re2c
   spamassassin spamassassin-spamd task-mail
0 upgraded, 20 newly installed, 0 removed and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 2578kB of archives.
After unpacking 5933kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 

New development with patch:

[vdanen at build SPECS]$ apt-get install task-mail
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Package imaps-server is a virtual package provided by:
1. courier-imap
2. dovecot
Select one of 1-2: 2
The following extra packages will be installed:
   dovecot perl-Archive-Tar perl-Geography-Countries perl-IO-Socket-SSL
   perl-IO-Zlib perl-IP-Country perl-Mail-SPF-Query perl-Mail-SpamAssassin
   perl-Net-CIDR-Lite perl-Net-DNS perl-Net-Ident perl-Sys-Hostname-Long
   perl-version procmail re2c spamassassin spamassassin-spamd
The following NEW packages will be installed:
   dovecot perl-Archive-Tar perl-Geography-Countries perl-IO-Socket-SSL
   perl-IO-Zlib perl-IP-Country perl-Mail-SPF-Query perl-Mail-SpamAssassin
   perl-Net-CIDR-Lite perl-Net-DNS perl-Net-Ident perl-Sys-Hostname-Long
   perl-version procmail re2c spamassassin spamassassin-spamd task-mail
0 upgraded, 18 newly installed, 0 removed and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 3314kB of archives.

Definitely seems to be doing what I want.

You're right tho.. -y may be problematic.  With using -y, it just sits
at the selection prompt. I suppose there are two schools of thought
here... '-y' is to supply yes to all questions, so it's doing the right
thing here; but '-y' is also most useful for unattended operations which
this would break (the prompt stall).

Personally, I think '-y' as it is right now is fine... in my mind, by
passing -y I want apt to auto-select what it can and carry on which is
great for initial installs (i.e. the Annvix install scripts use apt in
this way).  Also, for upgrades, this shouldn't be a problem (at least, I
can't see it being a problem) -- this would be an issue for new pkg
installs only.  I suppose someone could package something badly where
this might be a problem, but I can't really see it being an issue.

In short, I love the feature!  Thanks so much for this.


-- 
Vincent Danen @ http://linsec.ca/
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