Re: Package format/management ramblingss

[Alfred M. Szmidt]

   > One thing you didn't address how pre/post script should be
   > handled; scripts that have to be run during/after
   > installation/deinstallation.

   What exactly are these needed for?

I was thinking that they would be needed when information is needed
from a user during install.  And during uninstall, to remove stale
files and the like.  Might be worth checking what pre/post
install/uninstall rules are really used for; I will do this.

Also, what if (when?) we support third party packages with our package
manager?  Should the user be "forced" to manually run a configuration
program after installing the package?

   (Maybe we don't need them at all?)

Maybe we don't, I'm all for non-interactiveness.  One reason why we
might not need them is because we will have sane defaults for
everything, and then some nice configuration program for users which
like that kind of stuff (debconf seems suitable for the job).  Then we
provide a PACKAGE-configure program for all programs that can be
configured this way.

   > I am thinking of how this would be handled for now, the only
   > solution I see is to write this translator (which Wolfgang would
   > like to be called `kitten') right now.  I might do this if nobody
   > else does; shouldn't be hard.

   If you implement it as a read-only translator, it is not hard.  It
   becomes more interesting if you want to allow the user to edit the
   concatenated (conkittenated? :-)) file.  I had an idea how to best
   do this; if you want, I can elaborate on that.

Please do, always nice to get the details out in the air; but do it in
a different thread. :-)