add configuration option to menu for location of packages

[Rehan Khan]

Imported: http://tracker.labix.org/issue362

Reason Review Issues. I've summarised below.

further details: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/smart/+spec/bug-reporting-migration

msg1315 (view) Author: casualprogrammer Date: 2008-02-07.09:24:25

"Concerning the fill up of disk space, this is sysadmin 101: divide you system
into partitions, specially moving /var and /home into their own."

How about _non_sysadmins_ ??

msg1314 (view) Author: casualprogrammer Date: 2008-02-07.08:03:01

Thanks for the hints, but wouldn't it be more helpful to set up a help file
accessible from the menu ? Currently there's only about.

msg1311 (view) Author: netmask Date: 2008-02-06.21:34:14

Concerning the fill up of disk space, this is sysadmin 101: divide you system
into partitions, specially moving /var and /home into their own.

Regarding configuring the cache path, you can't do it via GUI, but via command
line it's 'smart config --set data-dir /your/path', even though that will move
the hole /var/lib/smart structure somewhere else, not only the cache. Another
way is to make a symbolic link from /var/lib/smart/cache to anywhere else you
may fit.

Regarding install packages successivelly, try 'smart install --stepped' or
'smart upgrade --stepped' (I know, that can't be done from the GUI).

msg1309 (view) Author: casualprogrammer Date: 2008-02-06.12:26:53

smart downloads all packages to /var/lib/smart/packages. On a tight system a
full update can (and will) block the system when performing a major update. The
typical user will not realize what is wrong, as filling up the disk does not
tell just who did it and where the blocking files are. The typical scenario is
that login as user is no longer possible and leaves you scratching head.

I therefore suggest two configuration options:

1. Make the cache path configurable from the menu.

2. Add an option to download and install packages successively, rather than
downloading all packages before starting to install.

[Rehan Khan (rasker)]

The request is for:

1) Config option in gui to redirect /var/lib/smart. This can be implemented in a preferences or preferences->advanced dialog. Effectively a gui interface to 'smart config'

2) User documentation. Already added as a blueprint --> https://blueprints.launchpad.net/smart/+spec/user-documentation

3) implement --stepped in the gui

4) a disk check before commit. Quite important this one.Smart already calculates the information needed to implement this.