[pacman-dev] pacman PKGBUILD needs depends=(python)

[Jason Chu]

> I strongly prefer the second choice. It's much simpler and doesn't
> differ much from the current way of installing optional packages.
> Then we'll have this:
> 1) pacman -S gnome (or any other group or big package with many
> depends) (optional) pacman asks for each package in group
> 2) pacman lists all packages that are going to be installed
> 3) pacman installs those packages, displaying post_install messages if
> they exist, i.e.:
>   installing foobar...
>   :: foobar can make use of following packages if present:
>   :: python-libnotify - systray popups support
>   :: libfoo - blah-blah-blah
> 4) pacman notices uses=(python-libnotify libfoo) in package info and
> prints: Install python-libnotify [y/N]? y
> Install libfoo [y/N]?
> 5) now installation of package is fully finished, pacman writes to
> local db entry:
>   %USES%
>   python-libnotify
>   !libfoo
> so it knows that python-libnotify was selected by user and libfoo
> wasn't.

Be careful with this one.  One of the reasons Judd preferred pacman's
methods over dpkg is because it doesn't ask you anything after it
starts downloading.

I wasn't so sold on the idea when I first moved over to Arch, but I now
prefer non-interactive updates to interactive ones.  If I walk away
after I've said the last 'y' to start downloading, I know that the
install will probably be done when I get back.  Using something like
dpkg, I may have installed only one package and have to wait longer.

Prompting during install: -1

Jason
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://archlinux.org/pipermail/pacman-dev/attachments/20070401/432b1efc/attachment.pgp>