[Synaptic-devel] Re: The Super deb file?

[Hamish Robertson]

Yes, the sdeb will come bundled with only the dependancies it needs. Um, this was what I was thinking...

Ok, say we want to install....um....skype on a ubuntu feisty system.
As far as I can tell on a clean ubuntu feisty system skype needs 2 dependancies to run. 

So, to make the sdeb, you'd go into synaptic on a clean ubuntu system and install skype like you normally would do from the repositories, except just before the actual installation takes place, the deb files and the apt/synaptic script is frozen into the sdeb file (Which will probablty be nothing more than a fancy bz2 file) and placed in a specified directory in your home directory for later retrieval or distribution. 

For sdeb to really cook, there would need to be a naming convention as a ubuntu sdeb probably won't work with xandros or freespire. Maybe something like programname-UBUFF.sdeb (Ubuntu Feisty) or programename-XDS04 (Xandros 4)?

As for updated dependancies and such, do we really need to think about that? wouldn't the distro's auto update  thingy take care of that anyway?   

Sdeb is like the installation wizard in windows, but it doesn't rock the linux boat in any way...it's still essentially synaptic, apt-get and deb files. It's just an archive of all the things needed to install a program so that the program can be distributed without the internet or recalled later in case of system meltdown.

Sdeb files could be made by anyone, no matter how inexperienced they are, all they would have to do is check a box in synaptic when they are downloading from the repositories.

H.

On 28/07/07, WJ Koh <address@hidden> wrote:

Hi,

Interesting idea!

Perhaps the sdeb installation system would be able to install only the
dependencies it needs, instead of all of them, to prevent messing up
one's system.

But what if a newer version of a dependency it needs is released into
the repos, containing critical security patches?

"sdeb" sounds like installation wizards in windows. But it could be
much more organized and polished in terms of dependency management.

Koh Wei Jie