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[bogus@does.not.exist.com ()]

Which of these goals does the current contrib system meet?
Much as I like the contrib system, it still depends on replica, so,
from my point of view, none of the goals are met.
I once saw it take four hours to install openssl. That's just not workable.

Which of these goals does the gui-based contrib system meet?
This is the system that downloads .iso files and then runs replica
against them. It meets 3, to some extent, but is still too slow for
me; it sort of meets 6; but, unfortunately, it fails on 8.

Which of these goals does my extension meet?
2 -- can download/install all of hg, including all dependencies, in 3
minutes, 2 of which are hget
3 -- .1 seconds for 'deps hg'; .1 second for list packages; < .1
second for list installed
4 -- it knows the dependencies and will install everything with one command
5 -- get and install are seperate commands
6 -- ls /installed
8 -- yes -- /installed/<name> is only created when the package is
completely installed (but there are bugs still)
9 -- yes
10. there is little in the way of a db file, just a /installed
directory (which you get by a bind -a)
11. It's far faster than existing systems because it uses hget

1. is obviously not yet met. I think it would be worth doing a tiny 9,
just as we have tinycore, for terminals.
7. is still not met. Package removal is still a mess. I had hoped to
just mount the .iso's and run the tools out of them but have not
figured out all the issues yet. A simple rbind failed to do the trick.

Here are some examples.

# available packages
term% time list
4th
8169
82563
9load-e820
9win
X11
abaco

(etc.)
0.00u 0.00s 0.11r 	 list

# what packages does hg need?
term% time deps hg
z
bz2
openssl
python
0.00u 0.00s 0.10r 	 deps hg

#install tiff
term% install tiff
package is tiff
Package z already installed, no need to do it
9660srv 1151: serving /srv/tiff
FINIS

#install tiff again
term% install tiff
package is tiff
Package z already installed, no need to do it
Package tiff already installed, no need to do it
FINIS
term%

Sources to these tools, including the build script, are at
http://9grid.net/magic/webls?dir=/rminnich/src/package-tools

You can try them out -- it's all there. Packages are in
http://9grid.net/magic/webls?dir=/rminnich/src/package

I don't pretend the scripts are very good, they just represent a
starting point. Experience (mine) is that the system work well. For
example, just doing:

get openssh
install openssh

takes very little time and has worked reliably for me on 9vx.

And, since I installed hg earlier, openssh install skipped the openssh
install step. Left to the reader (or me in a bit): don't download iso
when the package is installed! -- but it's so fast I have not
bothered.

I'm able to install packages now without worrying about whether I will
be ready to disconnect my laptop and go home before the install is
done!

Next step, if this system is found to be useful, is to adapt fgb's gui program.

ron