[plug] Debian dpkg status question

[Denis Brown]

Thanks, Craig.

I went looking for apt- style tools but could not see anything really
relevant... lots of status and description stuff available in apt-cache
for example but no low-level manipulation.  Finally bit the bullet and
fired up dselect which, as you say, easily does the job.  Along the way I
took the opportunity to add a couple of things and upgrade to some newer
packages so the "cloud" had a silver lining :-)

When I say "bit the bullet" I don't want any newcomers to Debian to think
dselect is something to avoid.  It gives a great degree of control and
offers intelligent help along the way for dependencies.  Doubtless other
distros provide something similar.

One thing I did decide upon after experiencing difficulty telnetting into
the upgraded machine (potato -> woody) was to implement sshd and I'm happy
to say it was all quite painless.  The main down-side was having to
install ssh-aware clients on the many Windows boxes at which I sit in my
day-to-day work.  Teraterm with the ttsh extension seems to be working
well for me so far.

Cheers and thanks,
Denis