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Re: Attempting a VERY minimal install (using --no-install-recommends ;)

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On 04/26/2019 04:24 AM, Jonas Smedegaard wrote:
> Quoting Richard Owlett (2019-04-24 19:36:29)
>> I'm attempting a very minimal install because:
>> 1. small size in and of itself is a good goal
>> 2. fending for oneself is a valuable educational experience compared
>>      to having everything handed to you on a "golden platter" {Debian's
>>      default installer}
>>
>> My current experiments revolve around defining my personal take on a
>> minimal MATE desktop. Part of the motivation is that some recommended
>> packages clash with ones I wish to use. Just removing offending packages
>> after the fact is unaesthetic.
>>
>> My test machine has both a default install from DVD 1 and my minimalist
>> install. I had done a standard install without specifying any GUI or
>> extra packages.
>>
>> My base setup was installed by doing
>>     apt-get --no-install-recommends install task-mate-desktop
>>     apt-get install pluma gparted synaptic
> 
> I share your interest in installing minimal systems without the deroute
> of first installing too much and then removing unwanted parts.
> 
> I understand from your subject that you deliberately chose to explore
> first creating a broken system and then attempt to unbreak it.

It's not so much that I intentionally "broke" the system but I 
eliminated the "noise" of a set of sub-optimal permutation of recommends.

[One thing I've not sufficiently explored is the formal procedure/logic 
of recommending a particular package.]

The experiment met a preliminary goal. Using only *depends* does yield a 
"working", if not "productive",  system. Rather than being a "broken" 
system, I think of what I have as a "skeleton" that needs "flesh".

> 
> For the record, there's another (at least to me) more sensible approach
> of explicitly skipping packages you don't want - e.g. like this:
> 
>    apt-get install task-mate-desktop libreoffice- libreoffice-gtk3-

I just re-read the apt-get man page. I assume that is applying:
> If a hyphen is appended to the package name (with no intervening
> space), the identified package will be removed if it is installed.
I'd read that before but never seen an example of it before. I'll have 
to think on its implications for some vague ideas I've had.

> 
> Personally I use aptitude in fullscreen mode (i.e. run "aptitude" with
> no non-option arguments) to explore package relations (dependencies,
> recommendations, suggests, and enancements) interactively.

"aptitude --show-XXX" may be what I've been looking for. Can you 
recommend  article/tutorial/examples I should read.

> 
> When I then have a set of explicit package selections possibly with
> explicit recommendation suppressions, I save those as classes for the
> tool "boxer" for reuse across many different larger system compositions.

I found https://wiki.debian.org/Boxer . Is there more extensive 
documentation/examples?

> 
> If anyone is interested in collaborating on that approach, I welcome you
> to join the Debian Tinker project: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianTinker
> 
> 
>> All it lacks is internet connectivity.
> 
> Unless you examined _every_ ignored recommendation and confirmed that
> indeed you did not need it, you must mean "...known so far"!

<SNICKER><grin> That meant only that  the lack of internet connectivity 
was preventing me from my planned activities. That lack was due to an error.

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Thread

Attempting a VERY minimal install (using --no-install-recommends ;) Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2019-04-24 19:40 +0200
  Re: Attempting a VERY minimal install (using  --no-install-recommends ;) Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2019-04-24 20:20 +0200
    Re: Attempting a VERY minimal install (using --no-install-recommends  ;) Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2019-04-24 21:40 +0200
      Progress - was [Re: Attempting a VERY minimal install (using  --no-install-recommends ;)] Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2019-04-24 22:30 +0200
  Re: Attempting a VERY minimal install (using --no-install-recommends  ;) Georgios <gpdsbe+debian@mailbox.org> - 2019-04-24 20:20 +0200
    Re: Attempting a VERY minimal install (using --no-install-recommends  ;) Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2019-04-24 20:50 +0200
  Re: Attempting a VERY minimal install (using --no-install-recommends  ;) Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> - 2019-04-24 21:40 +0200
  Re: Attempting a VERY minimal install (using --no-install-recommends  ;) mick crane <mick.crane@gmail.com> - 2019-04-24 21:50 +0200
    Re: Attempting a VERY minimal install (using --no-install-recommends  ;) Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2019-04-24 22:30 +0200
  Re: Attempting a VERY minimal install (using  --no-install-recommends ;) Patrick Bartek <nemommxiv@gmail.com> - 2019-04-25 03:20 +0200
    Re: Attempting a VERY minimal install (using --no-install-recommends  ;) Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2019-04-25 05:10 +0200
      Re: Attempting a VERY minimal install (using --no-install-recommends  ;) David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2019-04-25 07:30 +0200
        iwd and DNS (was: Re: Attempting a VERY minimal install (using  --no-install-recommends ;)) Erik Josefsson <erik.hjalmar.josefsson@gmail.com> - 2019-04-25 11:40 +0200
          Re: iwd and DNS (was: Re: Attempting a VERY minimal install (using  --no-install-recommends ;)) mick crane <mick.crane@gmail.com> - 2019-04-25 12:00 +0200
          Re: iwd and DNS (was: Re: Attempting a VERY minimal install (using --no-install-recommends ;)) Jonas Smedegaard <jonas@jones.dk> - 2019-04-25 12:20 +0200
          Re: iwd and DNS (was: Re: Attempting a VERY minimal install (using  --no-install-recommends ;)) David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2019-04-25 17:50 +0200
  Re: Attempting a VERY minimal install (using --no-install-recommends ;) Jonas Smedegaard <jonas@jones.dk> - 2019-04-26 11:30 +0200
    Re: Attempting a VERY minimal install (using --no-install-recommends  ;) Richard Owlett <rowlett@cloud85.net> - 2019-04-26 14:20 +0200
      Re: Attempting a VERY minimal install (using --no-install-recommends ;) Jonas Smedegaard <jonas@jones.dk> - 2019-04-26 15:10 +0200

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