Mailinglist Archive: zypp-devel (230 mails)

[Klaus Kaempf <kkaempf@xxxxxxx>]

Jan,

thanks for picking up this thread.


* Jan Kupec <jkupec@xxxxxxx> [Feb 07. 2008 19:24]:
> Let's agree on what a candidate is (installation candidate, right?).

Before doing this, let me question the need for a candidate per se.

> Is it one of the resolvables (or pool items) of a Selectable considered
> to be the most suitable to be selected for installation based on current
> setup of policies?

Thats the current definition (from my understanding).

> Is it just a hint for the solver about what should be installed in case
> the user doesn't specifically choose another version?

This is not needed. The name is a sufficient hint for the solver to
choose the 'best' package. 
However, the user is free to choose a specific version (evtl. from a
specific repository) thereby limiting the solvers ability to compute
an optimal (in terms of size, overall number of changes, etc.) solution.

> Is the 'candidate' tied to a particular Selectable or is it rather a
> candidate of multiple Selectables (the whole pool perhaps)?
>
> Klaus suggested the term 'candidate' is misleading. Why? If the
> candidate is for some reason not installable (which will be determined
> by solving), is there a problem with still calling it a candidate?

> Candidate != to-be-installed, right?

Right. And thats the problem I want to address. Showing a 'candidate' at
the UI, one which might not be installed, his highly misleading.

"zypper in foo" is the normal use at the command line level, you don't
"zypper in foo-1.2.3.i586". Why should the graphical UI, supposed to
be more userfriendly and less technical, display an arbitrary
technical detail ?

> If the answers are positive, the Selectable::candidate() should return
> the candidate based on current policies
The policies are solver policies, so you need a solver run to execute
them.

> and should be used by the UIs to mark it for installation

If the user marks the candidate (having a specific version from a
specific repository), this is very misleading.

> (if user clicked to install the selectable (no specific version))
Thats (no specific version) is how it should be. But one doesn't need
a candidate in this case.

> by the solver to mark it for installation to satisfy some dependencies.
> And that's just about it. If not, please correct me.
>
> Anything else?
>
> I hope i'm not messing things up :O)
*g*
Not at all. Clearing this up is overdue.

Klaus
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