What's the general opinion on dselect? Is it safe?

I'm running R5F1 and I wanted to install ImageMagick so that I can script some manipulations of pictures from my digital camera. I ran dselect and selected one package. When I chose the install option I got the following message, which out of fear of destabilizing my Knoppmyth box I answered "n" to. Before selecting install, I had ignored (i.e. I didn't select) dselects prompt that said ImageMagick suggests Ghostscript. I also ignored a message that said "locales" was unavailable.

So, has anybody used dselect safely on a Knoppmyth box? How high are the risks.

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
at bind9-host dc dictionaries-common dnsutils doc-debian doc-linux-text exim4 exim4-base exim4-config exim4-daemon-light ftp iamerican ibritish
imagemagick ispell libbind9-0 libdns22 libdrm-dev libgc1c2 libisc11 libisccc0 libisccfg1 liblockfile1 liblwres9 libsemanage1 mailx mpack mtools mtr-tiny
mutt ncurses-term pidentd policycoreutils procmail python-newt python-selinux python-semanage reportbug selinux-policy-refpolicy-targeted sharutils
strace tcsh telnet texinfo time w3m wamerican
The following packages will be upgraded:
alsa-base alsa-source apache-common apache2 apache2-mpm-prefork apache2-utils apache2.2-common apt apt-utils aptitude bsdutils busybox ca-certificates
comerr-dev console-data coreutils dash debian-archive-keyring defoma dhcp3-client dhcp3-common dhcp3-server dialog dosfstools e2fslibs e2fsprogs eject
firmware-ipw3945 fontconfig fontconfig-config gconf2 gconf2-common gnupg gpgv hal hal-device-manager hdparm initramfs-tools initscripts iputils-ping
ipw3945d kdelibs-data kdelibs4-dev kdelibs4c2a kernel-package klibc-utils libapache-mod-php4 libapache2-mod-php4 libasound2 libasound2-dev libaudio-dev
libaudio2 libavahi-client-dev libavahi-client3 libavahi-common-data libavahi-common-dev libavahi-common3 libavahi-glib1 libavahi-qt3-1 libavahi-qt3-dev
libavcodec0d libavformat0d libblkid1 libcomerr2 libcupsys2 libcupsys2-dev libdb4.2 libdb4.3 libfontconfig1 libfontconfig1-dev libgconf2-4 libgda2-3
libgda2-common libgl1-mesa-dev libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx libglu1-mesa libglu1-mesa-dev libgnomevfs2-0 libgnomevfs2-common libgpmg1 libgtk2.0-0
libgtk2.0-common libgtk2.0-dev libhal-storage1 libid3tag0 libid3tag0-dev libio-stringy-perl libkadm55 libklibc libkrb5-dev libkrb53 libldap-2.3-0
libldap2 liblircclient-dev liblircclient0 libmagick9 libmetacity0 libmozjs0d libmysqlclient15-dev libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn3 libnewt0.52
libnss3-0d libntfs9 libpanel-applet2-0 libpostproc0d libpq4 libqt3-headers libqt3-mt libqt3-mt-dev libqt3-mt-mysql libsdl1.2-dev libsdl1.2debian
libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libslp1 libsmbclient libsqlite3-0 libss2 libtotem-plparser1 libusb-0.1-4 libuuid1 libvolume-id0 libwrap0 libx11-6
libx11-data libx11-dev libxfont1 libxul-common libxul0d linux-sound-base lirc lirc-modules-source lirc-svga lirc-x lm-sensors login lsb-base lvm2 man-db
mesa-common-dev metacity-common module-init-tools motion mount mysql-client-5.0 mysql-common mysql-server-5.0 netbase nfs-common nfs-kernel-server
ntfsprogs ntp openbsd-inetd openssh-client openssh-server passwd php4-common php4-mysql portmap ppp python-gnome2-extras python2.4 python2.4-minimal
qt3-dev-tools samba samba-common sensord shared-mime-info smbclient smbfs ssh syslinux sysstat sysv-rc sysvinit sysvinit-utils tcpd tftpd-hpa ttf-dejavu
ucf udev update-inetd uuid-dev whiptail wvdial x11-common xlibmesa-gl-dev xmame-common xmame-tools xmame-x xorg xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
xserver-xorg-dev xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-neomagic zd1211-firmware
200 upgraded, 48 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 202MB of archives.
After unpacking 67.5MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?

I don't use dselect, but it should be OK. The only thing that I've broken in the past by installing new s/w has been X, but since we're now on xorg, this is no longer the case. I think you'll be OK to install it, but do a KM backup in case you break something beyond your corrective capability and need to reinstall.

Mike

P.S. I use apt and dpkg.

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LinHES 7.4
Australian Dragon
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With it upgrading that many packages I would at least take some kind of backup first.

Well, a backup would be a good idea, but I don't know how confident I am of automated rollback. I don't really want to do a reinstall and use my backup to manually resurrect the box.

I certainly am concerned that it wants to upgrade that vast list of software simply because I selected ImageMagick from the list.

The problem isn't dselect which is effectively just a menu front end to the "usual" dpkg and apt-get command line tools. I've used it before without any issues.

The problem, as you've already discovered, is dependency cascades that drag in huge lists of updates and break other packages. All the usual cautions about using apt-get still apply to dselect.

Hi

I normally just us apt-get install from the command line. Then when it comes back and reports what is needed one can simply "opt out" and abort the install.

is where the problem comes in. With apt-get if it says anything other than 0 for upgrades, and 0 for removal I don't do it.

So far that has worked for me. IF it is a single package, I have allowed it to update single packages as it is only updating itself and those have been without issue. ymmv

Take the previous words of heed, backup your system first. If in doubt, don't do it.

Mike

You can also use the -s option to simulate without actually adding/removing/upgrading packages. I always do this first. It's a little extra insurance against doing "a bad, bad thing."

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Mike
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