[Rule-list] script to uninstall rpms and change config files

[Eugene Wong]

>From: Martin Stricker <shugal at gmx.de>
>
>Eugene Wong wrote:
>
> > 1 important thing that this is supposed to do is allow the
> > installation scripts to have a broad range of rpms to install, to
>
>Hmmmm... While this is a very nice thing to have for a regular Linux
>installation, I'm not sure if this is the right way for RULE:
<snip>
>but against
>that you propose to let Miniconda and Slinky install anything that is
>not absolutely necessary!

Actually, what I'm thinking of is not quite like what you said above. It is 
more like what you said in the next paragraph.

>Of course there can be additional "bloat"
>collections of RPMs to select during install, and for weeding out
>unnecessary stuff there your script idea is of excellent use!

Agreed. I noticed that some of the packages listed in the base package list, 
are not at all relavent to my computer. All I have is an ethernet card, i/o 
card, mono chrome card hard drive & floppy. I don't need 
"eject-#.#.#-i386.rpm". After looking through the network package list, I 
also found stuff that I don't need.

>...Let the user decide. But this implies that your script needs
>either to be "married" with the installer (to get all the actually
>installed RPMs into the config file), or to make a search after install
>like `rpm -qa` to populate the config file after install.

Hmm...those are good points. I forgot that the package lists change. That's 
too bad.

Perhaps what I could do is create a bunch of scripts.

1 of them would focus solely on removing certain packages. Perhaps we could 
use grep or something similar. It could go through the user's/admin's list 
of annoying packages, and compare them to "rpm -qa". In my case, my list 
would contain "eject". In the script we could use a "for" loop, & through 
each iteration [correct terminology?], it could do something like, "rpm 
-qa|grep ${my_item_from_list}". If something is found, then it could ask, 
"Would you like to uninstall foo_package-#.#.#, using rpm -e? [Y/n]". I feel 
that it is safe to use "Y" as the default, because by time they are smart 
enough to edit the file & scripts, they should know what they want & don't 
want. We could also let them choose to do it all without prompting. These 
are all just a suggestions.

For the next script, the config files can be saved just like Marco 
suggested, by copying or patching them into files in the user's home 
directory.

Also, there is the need to remove certain documentation and directories that 
definitely aren't needed. I don't have any games, so I could remove them 
quite safely. Also I've never needed i18n nor l10n, so anytime that I find 
something that I don't like I could add it to a list of things to remove. 
Perhaps, I could type, "add2TheList foobar/". The script would then ">>" the 
directory name, every subdirectory name & file name to a list in your home 
directory, then "rm -rf foobar/". Later on, when you get a chance, you 
insert the floppy with the script, and run a tool. The tool will check ~/ 
for the list, run diff and compare, then add the new stuff to it's own copy. 
I recommend letting the list grow a little, so that you aren't constantly 
inserting & removing floppies.

Perhaps we should call it "vacuum", because it sucks up unwanted stuff. :^)

Suggestions?

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