On Tue, Dec 18, 2018 at 06:28:06PM +0000, g4sra via Dng wrote:
> >
> > I still fail understanding what you mean by "Program 2". It's called,
> > maybe, just "apt-get" or "synaptic".
> >
>
> OK, um..
> take tasksel, clone it into two.
>
> In tasksel one [1], keep everything that is NOT optional (and is stateful).
> Partitioning, formatting, kernel, bootloader, package manager of choice.
>
> In tasksel two [2], keep everything that is optional and changeable (and is stateless).


Are you familiar with the Debian/Devuan installer? "tasksel" is the
installer component that lets you choose which set of packages you
want to install *after* the base system has been installed. It
includes selections like "XFCE desktop", "KDE Desktop", "Printer
server", "SSH server", "web server", "Console productivity", "Standard
system utilities", etc. You choose what you want, it installs the
corresponding packages. If you change idea after installation, you
just run again "tasksel" (from the installed system) and change your
selections. It's already there.

However, I cannot see any change in a distribution (i.e., in the set
of packages that are installed at a certain time in a system) that is
"stateless". dpkg is a stateful package manager. yum is a stateful
package manager. xbps is a stateful package manager. tasksel is
half-stateful, since it cannot forbid you from uninstalling any of the
packages on which the task meta-pakcages depend, and in the end the
only master of packages is dpkg.

What you seem to want is something like "yast", a central
configuration manager. Now, you can have a central configuration
manager if you ship just one DE, one http server, one sql server, and
so on. This is not the case of Debian/Devuan, where there are nearly
50.000 available packages, and not just a single use-case (e.g., a
GNOME desktop with no servers around).

Such a centralised configuration manager would require an abnormal
amount of work to be kept updated with the latest versions of all the
packages available. I personally don't want anything like that, and I
really hope that nobody embarks in such a quest, if they want to
maintain their mental sanity :P

My2cents

KatolaZ

-- 
[ ~.,_  Enzo Nicosia aka KatolaZ - Devuan -- Freaknet Medialab  ]  
[     "+.  katolaz [at] freaknet.org --- katolaz [at] yahoo.it  ]
[       @)   http://kalos.mine.nu ---  Devuan GNU + Linux User  ]
[     @@)  http://maths.qmul.ac.uk/~vnicosia --  GPG: 0B5F062F  ] 
[ (@@@)  Twitter: @KatolaZ - skype: katolaz -- github: KatolaZ  ]