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Extract devx-only packages

October 28, 2012 — BarryK
The PPM references /root/.packages/woof-installed-packages to determine what packages are built-in to Puppy, and thus already installed.

Until now, packages that are in the devx SFS only, are also listed in woof-installed-packages.

However, this does cause problems if the user does not have the devx SFS loaded. The PPM will think a certain dependency is present, when in fact it isn't.

I had this problem with Python, and I got around it for Precise Puppy 5.4 final by building Python into the main Puppy SFS, despite it's size.

Yesterday, another dependency, 'libpq5', was mentioned in the Forum with the same problem. The PPM thought it is already installed, when it is only in the devx.

I have modified the script 'findwoofinstalledpkgs' in Woof, to exclude devx-only packages from woof-installed-packages, and instead log them in a new file, 'devx-only-installed-packages'.

This new file is also copied into /root/.packages during the build, alongside woof-installed-packages.

Woof commits:
http://bkhome.org/fossil/woof2.cgi/info/88855e95ea
http://bkhome.org/fossil/woof2.cgi/info/3c9e97accd

This does mean that I could move Python back to the devx for future releases of Precise Puppy.
I think that some PETs that 666philb has created recently assume the presence of Python, so that would need to be addressed.

Tags: woof