[packagekit] PackageKit & Debian, Was: External dependencies, DeviceKit-power and GNOME Power Manager

[Martin Pitt]

Duncan Mac-Vicar Prett [2008-11-27  9:53 +0100]:
> Ok, so introducing the concept of configured packages is ok, the problem
> is that the debconf scripts are not designed for gui and ask data
> however they like.

No, it's not quite that crackful. :-)

debconf is a defined protocol over a pipe, with client-side libraries
and various language bindings (including python). There are several
standard implementations of how these questions are actually asked,
including curses, command line, email, or not at all
("noninteractive"). Packages like synaptic provide a GTK
implementation, so that the questions are shown in proper GTK dialogs
instead of curses, etc.

In case you are interested in details:
http://www-linux.gsi.de/cgi-bin/man2html?debconf-devel+8

> If they had a standard way to ask data, then that program could be
> replaced by a packagekit one.

Right, that's the idea. I guess for that the existing implementation
in synaptic could be reused to a large degree.

Martin

-- 
Martin Pitt                        | http://www.piware.de
Ubuntu Developer (www.ubuntu.com)  | Debian Developer  (www.debian.org)