> getselections is supposed to be current. A package marked deinstall is > removed, but not purged. Or at least it is expected to be.
On my machine, it definately doesn't work like that. I just tested it. Changed a selection in dselect, but didn't do an "Install", the selection change was evident in dpkg --get-selections. > There is no other > good way for an outside program to ask dpkg about the state of the system. I realise this is the problem. Which is why one might rather look at updating dpkg, rather than update-menus... (Oh, my machine is a very up-to-date woody, well, as up to date as the local mirror, which seems to update a couple of times a week, but not necessarily every day.) > a) # dpkg --get-selections|sed -e 's/deinstall$/install/'|dpkg > --set-selections > # apt-get dselect-upgrade Ah yes... sed. The problem with this is, it will also install the packages that are not installed (that are really currently "deinstalled"). Maybe one should use sed on /var/lib/dpkg/status...? Replacing lines containing "Status: install ok deinstall" or something like that with "Status: install ok install"... It does sort of feel wrong to go this "low level" though. > b) run the dselect update as root, but actually browse as a user A little extra trouble, but probably the best solution thus far. Infact, I just got the idea, and tested it, to simply do: # dselect update ; su hugo -c "dselect select" I could just make this a "listnewpackages" script or alias... > c) dselect has a 'revert' key binding, but it only works for that run of > dselect. So if you exit, there is no help. Yup... a "global revert" would be usefull. > Personally, I think console apt should have some way of showing new packages. > if a package is marked 'new' and you have the sort order set to show new items > first, it would emulate dselect fairly well. If possible, this way should be avoidable if it makes console-apt any slower, I think. But personally, on my machine, I would also love to see this. Thanks, Hugo van der Merwe
