Chapter 7. The Debian package management tools

40

One can specify which packages should be operated on by highlighting a package name

or the label for a group of packages. After that, you can select packages:

to be installed: This is accomplished by pressing the `+' key.

to be deleted: Packages can be deleted two ways:

  removed: this removes most of the files associated with the package, but pre 

serves the files listed as configuration files (see `What is a Debian conffile?' on

page

28

) and package configuration information. This is done by pressing the

` ' key.

  purged: this removes every file that is part of the package. This is done by

pressing the `_' key.

Note that it's not possible to remove  All Packages . If you try that, your system

will instead be reduced to the initial installed base packages.

to be put  on hold  This is done by pressing `=', and it effectively tells

dselect

not to

upgrade a package even if the version currently installed on your system is not

as recent as the version that is available in the Debian repository you are using

(this was specified when you set the Access Method, and acquired when you used

Update).

Just like you can put a package on hold, you can reverse such setting by pressing

`:'. That tells

dselect

that the package(s) may be upgraded if a newer version is

available. This is the default setting.

You can select a different order in which the packages are presented, by using the `o'

key to cycle between various options for sorting the packages. The default order is to

present packages by Priority; within each priority, packages are presented in order of the

directory (a.k.a. section) of the archive in which they are stored. Given this sort order,

some packages in section A (say) may be presented first, followed by some packages in

section B, followed by more packages (of lower priority) in section A.

You can also expand meanings of the labels at the top of the screen, by using the `v'

(verbose) key. This action pushes much of the text that formerly fit onto the display off

to the right. To see it, press the right arrow; to scroll back to the left, press the left arrow.

If you select a package for installation or removal, e.g.,

foo.deb

, and that package de 

pends on (or recommends) another package, e.g.,

blurf.deb

, then

dselect

will place

the you in a sub screen of the main selection screen. There you can choose among the

related packages, accepting the suggested actions (to install or not), or rejecting them. To

do the latter, press Shift D; to return to the former, press Shift U. In any case, you can

save your selections and return to the main selection screen by pressing Shift Q.

  Users returning to the main menu can then select the  Install  menu item to unpack and

configure the selected packages. Alternatively, users wishing to remove files can choose

the  Remove  menu item. At any point, users can choose  Quit  to exit dselect; users'

selections are preserved by

dselect

.