RPM needs to go on a diet.

[Michael Favia]

Havoc Pennington wrote:

>On Thu, 2005-02-17 at 14:14 -0600, Michael Favia wrote:
>  
>
>>For me this issue and others (plugins, kernel modules, 
>>missingok/optional features) seem to bolster the claim for a more 
>>interactive Yum or at least yum mode. A yum that poses a few simple 
>>question to the user like:
>>
>>You have 7 kernels installed we recommend that you keep the number of 
>>kernels installed concurrently fewer than 3 would you like to remove 
>>some of them?
>>  Yes all but the most recent 3.
>>  No keep your grimy hands off my kernels.
>>    
>>
>
>I wouldn't exactly describe this as a "simple question" ;-)
>  
>
Like i said half heartedly. And im not proposing this be a default 
operation but possible a mode of operation. Like the work on yum 
interactive that is going on right now.

>The right approach is to just have a default garbage collection policy,
>and for the 0.25% or less of the world that wants something else have a
>config file where you can disable kernel GC entirely or pin certain
>versions so they won't be removed.
>  
>
I agree. A good default behavior is in perfect line with my suggestion. 
Essentially i am proposing to have a system where the default operation 
satisfies most of the user base and you only enter interactive mode (in 
CLI or GUI) if you try a transaction and you dont like the suggestions 
or would like to know more options (like adding plugins to newly 
installed apps or choosing which 1 of the two applications that provide 
the same functionality (firefox, mozilla). To be prefectly clear i am 
not trying to punt the decision to the user. I wanted a good default 
option (current plus highest sounds best) with the ability for a user to 
make decisions should they desire to do so in this and other cases like 
i mentioned. The kernel argument isnt a huge one for this interactive 
mode. It just seemed to be one more piece that lended slightly to the 
argument for me. And im not proposing the interactive mode as default 
behavior but i think that there are a lot of issues like unknown plugins 
(to the user), and plugins that require either X or Y and i dont know 
how they are resolved at this time and i thought that it might be nice 
to try to flesh out a unified solution that simplifies the process using 
package management tools instead of cron jobs and scripts. Many new 
users to fedora dont know they need to download plugins to enhance 
programs and i was trying to give them a way to "discover" fedora using 
the same tool that they use to manage the installation of the new 
application.

-mf