Bruce Perens writes ("Dpkg feature request"):
...
> Thus, I'll ask Ian Jackson. How about three flags to dpkg?
> --select package-name [package-name ...]
> Selects a list of packages for later installation.
> --deselect package-name [package-name ...]
> De-selects a list of packages for later removal.
> --list-selected
> Lists selected packages in a way suitable for inclusion in a
> list
> passed to --select.
> There may well be flags to do this now, but I've missed them.
> This would allow you to set up the selections via a shell script or something,
> and then start dselect to fine-tune what you have selected.
I've implemented --get-selections and --set-selections in dpkg 1.3.9
which will be released some time this weekend.
--get-selections produces a list of lines each with a package name and
wanted state. By default it lists all the packages; you can specify
package names or patterns too.
--set-selections reads such a list and updates the wanted state for
each one in it.
You can do what `dpkg --select <package>' would do with
`echo <package> install | dpkg --set-selections'.
Ian.
