[Linux-disciples] Debian upgrade order

[Adam Rosi-Kessel]

On Sat, Jun 04, 2005 at 12:50:09PM -0400, Stephen R Laniel wrote:
> On Tue, May 31, 2005 at 10:31:03AM -0400, Adam Rosi-Kessel wrote:
> > At least one part of it makes sense, which is to do all the
> > configuration and dialogs up front, so you can answer all those
> > questions and then walk away while it completes the upgrade.  I guess
> > the question is how much pre-stuff needs to be done before those
> > questions can be presented and answered.
> Relatedly, I'd like apt-get to start installing packages as
> soon as it can; as it is, it waits until all packages have
> finished downloading before it starts installing. Any idea
> why it does this?

(1) KISS. dpkg/apt-get have been pretty conservative in development
strategy. It's critical that these pieces of Debian infrastructure be
rock solid.

(2) Related to #1, I think it would involve rewriting the package
database state locking system to allow multiple things to be happening at
once to it.

(3) In some cases this would be complicated where certain packages need
to be installed before others--it would just involve another layer of
checking what had come in, what was ready to unpack and install, etc..

(4) I'm not convinced it would make much difference in overall
performance, because dpkg seems to tie up CPU and disk on all but the
fastest systems; it might be best the way it is where everything is
downloaded (possibly in parallel) and then installed seriatim.
-- 
Adam Rosi-Kessel
http://adam.rosi-kessel.org
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