upgrade idea

[plugwash]

after installing knoppix 3.3 with knoppix-installer i decided to try and update the system

note: if you don't wan't a swap partition you must export IGNORE_CHECK=1 or it won't let you proceed

i was warned against useing dist-upgrade as it tends to kill kde

so i used apt-get upgrade and it upgraded some stuff but a lot was not upgraded

after some manual work i managed to get it to the point of 0 not upgraded but it was quite a bit of work and involved removeing some broken devel packages and such

this is obviously beyond a newbie

my idea is to have a program which works out what pacakges have been added upgraded downgraded or removed since my install (useing dpkg -l output)

then the program can be run on another machine to apply the changes file this will be done by comparing the changes file with the local dpkg-l and generating an apt-get command (with packge versions included on the command line)


what do people think if you like the idea i may well code it

[mikekgr]

Well I found your idea very interesting.
I am not programmer so I can't help on coding but I can test
the script when/if created

[plugwash]

ok i discovered dpkg -l output to be unsuitable because it truncates important fields lukilly the list of installed packages is in /var/lib/dpkg/status in plain text

however this file is not sorted in any way which could make compareing harder

[Stephen]

ok i discovered dpkg -l output to be unsuitable because it truncates important fields

COLUMNS=120 dpkg -l | grep ii to get a listing of everything installed 120 columns wide if you make the console window > 120 wide then everything will be on one line per package installed.

[plugwash]

if i set witdth 120 am i gaurenteed to get the full names and versions

or is there a still chance of something getting cut short

[Stephen]

if i set witdth 120 am i gaurenteed to get the full names and versions

or is there a still chance of something getting cut short

There is no guarentee that the full package name will not be larger than the column if it is increase the size of the column number and repeat the command.