On 6 May 2015 at 01:59, Charles Plessy <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello everybody, > > there is a relevant discussion that started on debian-boot, about the > contents > of minimal installations. > > See below for details. > > Have a nice day, > > -- Charles > > ----- Forwarded message from Ansgar Burchardt <[email protected]> ----- > > Date: Tue, 05 May 2015 20:45:09 +0200 > From: Ansgar Burchardt <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Cc: [email protected] > Subject: Packages to install be default for Stretch > Message-ID: <[email protected]> > User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.4 (gnu/linux) > > Hi, > > [ Please send replies only to boot@ ] > > I would like to re-evaluate what we change by default for Stretch, that > is the list of packages with priorities required, important and > standard. In general my plan involves installing less, taking into > consideration that requirements and expectations what should be > available in containers, chroots, on servers and desktop systems has > changed (at least IMHO). > > Some ideas which might need further though: > > * I would really like to not list libraries at a priority greater than > optional. This tends to accumulate cruft, cf. #758234 > > Examples from today's unstable: gcc-4.7-base, gcc-4.8-base, > gcc-4.9-base and gcc-5-base are at Priority: required. > libboost-iostreams1.5{4,5}.0 are at Priority: important > and so on. > > As far as I remember, debootstrap already ignores priorities for > library packages (Section: libs). > > * It would be nice to have "init" demoted from required to > important: it is not needed in environments like (buildd) chroots. > This needs moving the essential bit to sysv-rc (which provides > invoke-rc.d and update-rc.d) and possibly other changes. > > * I'm wondering if "tasksel(-data)" need to be "important"? I admit not > having used it outside of d-i. Is the installed version used as part > of the install process? Or could its priority be lowered to > "standard" or "optional"? > > * Same for question for "dmidecode": could the priority be lowered to > "standard"? > > Some priority changes which I believe could be implemented: > > * Packages currently at "important": > - cron: > Not needed in chroot/container environments. > -> demote to "standard" > - ifupdown, isc-dhcp-client, isc-dhcp-common: > Not needed in chroot/container environments. Might no longer be > needed on desktop systems (IIRC NetworkManager has a built-in DHCP > client in the last release, though not yet used by default). > -> demote to "standard" > - groff-base, man-db, manpages: > Not needed in chroot/container environments or many server > environments. > -> demote to "standard" > - less: > Not needed in chroot/container environments. > -> demote to "standard" > - logrotate, rsyslog: > -> tempted to demote to "standard", but maybe only in buster > - nfacct: > No idea why this is at Priority: important. > -> demote to "optional" > - netcat-traditional: > No IPv6 support... > -> demote to "standard", possibly to "optional" in buster > - traceroute, wget: > Useful for debugging, but not needed in chroot/container > environments. > -> demote to "standard" > > * Packages currently at "standard": > - aptitude, aptitude-common: > There's already apt. > -> demote to "optional" > - at: > Rarely used (IMO). > -> demote to "optional" > - bc, dc: > Rarely used (IMHO). > -> demote to "optional" > - dnsutils: > bind9-host provides a (limited) DNS query interface. No need to > install both bind9-host and dnsutils by default. > -> demote to "optional" > - bsd-mailx, exim4*, procmail, mutt: > Often not useful on desktop systems, has popular alternatives, > probably not needed in chroot/container environments either. > -> demote to "optional" > - ftp: > Brr, ftp. > -> demote to "optional" > - info, texinfo, install-info: > I admit having used info only in desperation. Most documentation > comes in man page format. > -> demote to "optional" > - host: > Transitional package. > -> demote to "extra" (+ Section: oldlibs) > - m4: > Rarely used (AFAIK). Well, at least outside of auto* and sendmail. > -> demote to "optional" > - mlocate: > Rarely used (AFAIK). > -> demote to "optional" > - nfs-common, rpcbind: > NFS is not so common to include in every install. One less service > listening to the network. > -> demote to "optional" > - patch: > Does anyone use this w/o having build-essential installed? > -> demote to "optional" > - time: > 'time' is a builtin in at least bash and zsh. > -> demote to "optional" > - w3m: > I think text-mode browsers are not worth including in the default > install. It is *very* rare to not have another computer to use. > Plus in the worst case the package is still just an apt-get away. > -> demote to "optional" > - whois: > Too special to include in standard install. > -> demote to "optional" > > Any comments and/or suggestion for other changes? > > Ansgar > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact > [email protected] > Archive: https://lists.debian.org/[email protected] > > ----- End forwarded message ----- > > -- > Charles Plessy > http://charles.plessy.org > Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan > > > -- > To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] > with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact > [email protected] > Archive: https://lists.debian.org/[email protected] > > Looks nice! Sounds like someone is really trying to cut the fat away :-)
Anders
