Feature Proposal: Use cases database

[Les Mikesell]

Richard Hughes wrote:
> 
>>  Can you describe a whole machine with a catalog file?
> 
> I guess you could, but they are not really designed for that.

Well, since we are talking about use cases here, I'll describe what I 
think a package manager should do.  I'd like it to convert between a 
text description of the packages and the packages themselves in the 
general sense and in either direction.  That is, at any point you could 
ask it for a description of the packages you have and get a file that 
you could copy to a different machine where you could use it to install 
exactly the same set there.

Or, you might diff the file against another one produced at a different 
time or on a different machine to see what packages were different.  Or, 
you might feed it to a version control system, perhaps with similar 
machines as branches so that you could easily track any combination of 
changes over time or changes between machines.

It should, of course do subset groupings as well as the whole package 
list.  Being able to revert backwards would be a big plus as would an 
option to track files that are modified after installation from a package.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com