Re: first draft aptitude howto
On Wed, Mar 29, 2000 at 10:03:42PM +, Miquel van Smoorenburg wrote: I see you need to know a lot of keys. I think that is non-intuitive; a full screen interface should have pulldown menus (perhaps with shortcuts), a command line interface has switches. Well, actually pull down menus are very seldom used with curses applications and not very good. A short menu like tin or mutt/elm offers is IMHO enough, and I think it is already there... You can of course use some Function Keys in Addition to letter Keys, and habe the Space-Key work on the current selection (cycle packet state), but IMHO aptitude is a great advance over the dselect. Especially because of the new package feature and the preview feature. The last functio i am missing is a install this function, which avods to upgrade others (i use apt-get install for that). Greetings Bernd
Re: first draft aptitude howto
On Tue, Mar 28, 2000 at 02:33:43AM -0500, Branden Robinson wrote: (c) Copyright 2000, Bernd Eckenfels, Germany Please don't assert copyright without including a license. Actually there is no difference if the line is present or not, as long as i dont claim otherwise it is my intelectual property... this is true for all nations which signed the genfer agreement, i.e. europe and the states :) But be asured it will get a Opendoc like license, i just had no time to figure it out. Thanks for your input, stay tuned for the next revision. Greetings Bernd PS: where can i actually find the new aptitude version?!
Re: first draft aptitude howto
(I'm also a first-time aptitude user) Branden Robinson [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: (Remark: I think I would find the overloading of the '-' key confusing. Please consider using a different key for hold operations. 'h' seems intuitive but might be pressed by novices as an attempt to get help. '!' seems like another possible candidate for hold, a la Stop! Wait! Achtung! :) ) After think about it like this, it was quite natural for me: + accelerates, goes forward. Packages that are standing still (held or simply not installed) will get in motion and move forward, if possible - brakes, goes back. Packages that would otherwise tend to get upgraded, will be held back by this; packages that are not in motion (already held, or up-to-date) will go backwards by being removed. I think I read something to that effect in the aptitude docs. Perhaps it would help putting a similar explanation into the howto. (As a die hard vi user, I suggest making 'j' and 'k' also perform navigation operations as well. :) ) That wouldn't hurt, yes. Although commanding the thing with just your keypad, would be cool, too (/ = quit, * = go, anyone?) g. [Agreeing to Brandon's other remarks] I don't know what turkis means; I guess I'll have to try aptitude out to learn. :) Or try `translate' and guessing bg: $ translate türkis türkis :: turquoise Robbe -- Robbe
Re: first draft aptitude howto
On 29-Mar-00, 09:00 (CST), Robert Bihlmeyer [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: (I'm also a first-time aptitude user) Branden Robinson [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: (Remark: I think I would find the overloading of the '-' key confusing. Please consider using a different key for hold operations. 'h' seems intuitive but might be pressed by novices as an attempt to get help. '!' seems like another possible candidate for hold, a la Stop! Wait! Achtung! :) ) After think about it like this, it was quite natural for me: + accelerates, goes forward. Packages that are standing still (held or simply not installed) will get in motion and move forward, if possible - brakes, goes back. Packages that would otherwise tend to get upgraded, will be held back by this; packages that are not in motion (already held, or up-to-date) will go backwards by being removed. I find this confusing. It seems to imply that I have to hit + twice to install a package and - twice to remove it. Very weird. What's wrong with '=' (keep the same)? -- Steve Greenland [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Please do not CC me on mail sent to this list; I subscribe to and read every list I post to.)
Re: first draft aptitude howto
In article [EMAIL PROTECTED], Bernd Eckenfels [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: With those two keys you usually will type 'u' and then 'f' in aptitude to reset it to its default working mode. In that mode you have a list of: If you have a packe selected, you will get information about it in the status line. The 'i' key will show the information/description of the package, the enter key a more complete information about the debian package system values for this package. To leave the information screens, you can use the 'q' key. Within the main tree, the 'q' key will quit the program. .. etc I see you need to know a lot of keys. I think that is non-intuitive; a full screen interface should have pulldown menus (perhaps with shortcuts), a command line interface has switches. I really hope someone comes up with a simple selfexplanatory intuitive menu-based full-screen interface - it's the #1 thing keeping people away from debian. Mike. -- Windows never had any potential for soundness or beauty. If you decide to build a motorcycle, and you start with a bathtub, no good will ever come of it. -- Anonymous Coward
Re: first draft aptitude howto
Here's my input. It is written from the perspective of someone who has never even run aptitude -- but that should be okay, since that is your target audience. :) On Tue, Mar 28, 2000 at 12:32:39AM +0200, Bernd Eckenfels wrote: aptitude (c) Copyright 2000, Bernd Eckenfels, Germany Please don't assert copyright without including a license. aptitude is a front-end to apt and dpkg, the Debian GNU/Linux Package Management tools. It tries to provide a nice user interface to every-day package management on Debian GNU/Linux Systems. Given the fact that we support the Hurd as well, it might be more accurate to start migrating to just saying Debian systems. You can start aptitude as non root (for example if you want to look for a package or see a list of new packages, but you can only use it as root to actually change the state of packages on your system. s/non root/non-root/ Unmatched parenthesis. Misleading wording as well; I suggest but to actually change the state of packages on your system, you must start aptitude as root. Aptitude is started from the command line in a console window or xterm with the command aptitude. I would drop the in a console window or xterm. The command line is the command line. In fact, it would be even more accurate to say the shell prompt. Furthermore, if aptitude registers itself in the Debian menu system, it could even be invoked without typing its name. :) Also, at this point I would describe the sections that appear: Upon startup, aptitude will present you with a list of categories into which packages are sorted. Not all categories may be present. New Packages Installed Packages Not Installed Packages Upgradeable Packages Virtual Packages The first thing to know about any program is how to to quit it -- you can use the 'q' (quit) key from this initial screen to quit aptitude. Aptitude uses APT's cache of available packages. This means you have to configure /etc/apt/source.list like you are used from apt-get. With the 'u' key you ask aptitude to retransmit the lists of available packages from different sources. Please case apt consistently. Given existing practice, I think downcasing it all the time is appropriate, but Jason Gunthorpe is the real authority on this subject. s/source.list/sources.list/ Therefore, apt's source repository file, /etc/apt/sources.list, must be correct and up-to-date. Use the 'u' (update) command to instruct aptitude to retrieve the available package lists from the sites listed in the source repository. If there is a new package present, it will be grouped unter New Packages. To tell aptitude, that it should remeber all new packages as seen, you tell it 'f' to forget. The grammar here could be cleaned up a bit. If there are new packages present (in other words, Debian packages that did not exist the last time package lists were retrieved), they will be grouped under 'New Packages'. To instruct aptitude to disregard the packages' new status and sort them with the rest of the available packages, you can use the 'f' command (forget that packages are new). You can open each of this sections by ,oving the cursor to the line and pressing enter. Subsections for the different trees in debian package archives will be visible. You can open each of the categories by moving the cursor to its line and pressing enter. Subsections for the different trees in Debian package archives will become visible. (Can you expand the subsections by pressing enter, or are the packages listed on this screen, indented under the sections, or what?) If you have a packe selected, you will get information about it in the status line. The 'i' key will show the information/description of the package, the enter key a more complete information about the debian package system values for this package. To leave the information screens, you can use the 'q' key. Within the main tree, the 'q' key will quit the program. If you have a package selected, information about it will be shown in the status line at the bottom (?) of the screen. Press 'i' (information) to display some descriptive information about the package, or enter for a full report about the package. Use 'q' (quit) to get out of the information screens. In the Not Installed Packages or in the New Packages, or even in the Dpendencies of installed pacages, you can use the + key to mark a package for installation. You can also use the - key on a intalled package to mark it for removal. Packages that are not presently installed (in the New Packages or Not Installed Packages categories) may be selected for installation with the + (add package) key. Packages which are upgradeable can be put on hold with the '-' key, so their desired state is downgraded from upgrade to hold. If you press the '-' key once more, they are even deleted. To purge a package instead of deleting it (purging will remove all data, especially the config files, too) you use the '_' key.
first draft aptitude howto
Hello, need to spell check it, but i guess it might be helpfull anyway: aptitude (c) Copyright 2000, Bernd Eckenfels, Germany aptitude is a front-end to apt and dpkg, the Debian GNU/Linux Package Management tools. It tries to provide a nice user interface to every-day package management on Debian GNU/Linux Systems. This is a short tutorial to help you with using the default installation of aptitude. This tutorial is based on the version 0.5.1 of aptitude. Starting You can start aptitude as non root (for example if you want to look for a package or see a list of new packages, but you can only use it as root to actually change the state of packages on your system. Aptitude is started from the command line in a console window or xterm with the command aptitude. First Steps Aptitude uses APT's cache of available packages. This means you have to configure /etc/apt/source.list like you are used from apt-get. With the 'u' key you ask aptitude to retransmit the lists of available packages from different sources. If there is a new package present, it will be grouped unter New Packages. To tell aptitude, that it should remeber all new packages as seen, you tell it 'f' to forget. With those two keys you usually will type 'u' and then 'f' in aptitude to reset it to its default working mode. In that mode you have a list of: Installed Packages Not Installed Packages Upgradeable Packages Virtual Packages You can open each of this sections by ,oving the cursor to the line and pressing enter. Subsections for the different trees in debian package archives will be visible. If you have a packe selected, you will get information about it in the status line. The 'i' key will show the information/description of the package, the enter key a more complete information about the debian package system values for this package. To leave the information screens, you can use the 'q' key. Within the main tree, the 'q' key will quit the program. In the Not Installed Packages or in the New Packages, or even in the Dpendencies of installed pacages, you can use the + key to mark a package for installation. You can also use the - key on a intalled package to mark it for removal. Packages which are upgradeable can be put on hold with the '-' key, so their desired state is downgraded from upgrade to hold. If you press the '-' key once more, they are even deleted. To purge a package instead of deleting it (purging will remove all data, especially the config files, too) you use the '_' key. If you made your selections (which action should be taken on which package with +, -, _) you press the 'g'o key. Another screen will list you all desred options (which packages will be updated, which installed and which deleted. You can make changes there, too. While pressing 'q' will get you back to the main tree, pressing 'g' a second time will actiate the installation/download/deleting of packages. Additional Keys in aptitude include '/' for searching, 'home', 'end' and 'up' 'down' for navigation. NOTE: with aptitude 0.0.4a (included in potato) you will find it confusing if you dont have support for colors in your term, since: (todo: find the right names for those colors :) white = normal red= broken green = install turkis = remove bl n wh= hold cyan = update (same as green but alrady installed). Also in the 0.0.4a version a split screen view with package details and a key help menu is missing. bernd
