PR etiquette & feature proposals

[mihai-stancu]

Hi,

I'd like to contribute to this project, ar you open to accepting some PRs?

Here are the features I had on my mind:

A) Post-install scripts

Syntax:

key howdy https://keyserver.ubuntu.com/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x8CEBC97F3E9E1D58
source howdy <<<"http://ppa.launchpad.net/boltgolt/howdy/ubuntu $VERSION_CODENAME main"
package howdy
post-install howdy <<<EOF
   pip install --upgrade numpy==1.26.4
   sed -iE 's@device_path = [^\n]+@device_path = /dev/video0@' /lib/security/howdy/config.ini
EOF

Use-cases: configuring the app you just installed.

B) Pre-install scripts

Currently the implementation already allows scripting because the entire Debfile is executed as a bash file.
For symmetry with post-install I could implement the pre-install logic as well.

C) Explicit ordering between remote deb package vs repository packages

Use-cases:

• deb package is provided only to setup the repository (ex.: MySQL had this, DisplayLink driver) which requires ordering https://example.com/some/package.deb, then apt install
• deb package has some prerequisites it doesn't install itself so they need to be installed beforehand (Dropbox on Ubuntu 22.04 has this issue) which requires ordering apt install, then example.com/some/package.deb

Because the above cases are in conflict I'd like to implement an optional ordering mechanism to allow the user to choose when each package needs to be installed.

Example syntax (WIP):

package :before https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/22.04/packages-microsoft-prod.deb # sets up repo
package :after powershell # installs powershell

package :before libpango1.0-0 # prerequisite of dropbox
package :after https://www.dropbox.com/download?dl=packages/ubuntu/dropbox_2020.03.04_amd64.deb # fails install without libpango

D) apt-bundle https://example.org/some/Debfile

Fetching Debfiles from remote sources.

[knu]

Thanks for your interest.

• pre-install/post-install scripts

  Sounds like a good idea. I use apt-bundle not only for setting up container images but also for maintaining my Ubuntu environment, so features that make daily server maintenance easier are more than welcome.
  Would that configure a file in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/ with DPkg::Pre-Invoke/DPkg::Post-Invoke?

• ordering between remote deb package vs repository packages

  As long as it doesn't overcomplicate things, it's fine with me.

• remote Debfile

  To me, it's a scary idea to source and run a remote shell script, but everything is at the user's own risk after all.

[mihai-stancu]

Would that configure a file in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/ with DPkg::Pre-Invoke/DPkg::Post-Invoke?

Those scripts are global and invoked every time apt invokes dpkg.
If they are created/installed they would stick around after apt-bundle is done (don't think we want that).
And they would not be executed only for a specific package -- they will always execute.

My thoughts about pre-install/post-install scripts were more in the direction of how you configured keyring scripts.
At call-time create a file with script provided by the user, at run-time execute the file.

---

ordering between remote deb package vs repository packages
As long as it doesn't overcomplicate things, it's fine with me.

I'd try to take the first parameter :before|:after and include it in the filename of the packages file (and the deb file).
With that I could then execute them in a preset order.

---

remote Debfile
To me, it's a scary idea to source and run a remote shell script, but everything is at the user's own risk after all.

True. I tend to only do this for controlled sources (my own scripts).