[arch-general] `base` group replaced by mandatory `base` package - manual intervention required

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Fri, 11 Oct 2019 11:33:51 +0100, Ralph Corderoy wrote:
>Hi Ralf,
>
>> An editor is a fundamental tool  
>
>Yes, but stepping back a bit... do you accept that neither a text
>editor, or less(1), are required on a minimal install that's just being
>used as a base for producing a specialised install for a particular
>task, as used in a container?
>
>I'm unclear if you're arguing what should be in an add-on-to-base
>package for typical interactive use, or that the concept of stripping
>back base is wrong and should be reverted.
>

Hi Ralph,

first of all, the package "base" as is, is ok for me.

_If_ the developers _would_ ask the Arch users, what packages to include
again, I would at least vote for "less", "vim" and manual pages.

If I run a Linux in a container, this Linux does not need a kernel, but
actually "less" and an editor are needed by me...

[root at archlinux moonstudio]# systemd-nspawn -bq
[root at moonstudio ~]# uname -r; lsb_release -d
5.3.5-arch1-1-ARCH
Description:	Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS
[root at moonstudio ~]# less /etc/apt/sources.list
[snip]
[root at moonstudio ~]# visudo
[snip]

...excluding the kernel, let alone packages to support exotic file
systems, IMO is useful. I want the mainline kernel, even while most of
the times I'm running real-time patched kernels, but I agree that the
kernel should be optional.

Removing the man pages, IOW the documentation by default is a very bad
idea, since this is one of the benefits of BSD and Linux over opaque
operating systems.

I guess for special minimized installs users want to install
something like BusyBox and remove man pages, as well as header files
and even something like "grep" and other that are replaced by BusyBox,
but such special cases IMO should not be reflected by a base install.

That's my opinion, IOW next time I will install the base package and
at least add "less", "vim", "nano" [1] and the man page related
packages.

Regards,
Ralf

[1]
$ grep EDIT .bashrc 
export EDITOR="nano"

"vim" because it's the lowest common denominator and "nano" because
it's easier to use for simple editing. For advanced editing I'm in
favour of a GUI editor. A lot of other users are probably even in favour
of an IDE.