Once upon a time, Eric Warnke <eric@xxxxxxxxxxxx> said: > lynx/w3m+w3m-el/elinks - 1 objection about scripts using lynx... ether > those scripts are not part of core or they are not marked correctly. If > you can surf the web with either, you can download them from extras. If > either has a dependancy in core the .src.rpm needs to be corrected. > Personally I think lynx should go to extras. At one time, lynx was the only one of those that could do SSL, basic authentication, etc. (I don't know the current state of all of them because I use lynx). I think it may still be the only one that verifies SSL certificates. An example of a script that uses lynx is the Apache apachectl script. IIRC the perl CPAN module can also use it when libwww-perl is not available. Since lynx was (and may still be) the widest-spread text mode browser, many third party and home-grown scripts use it. I haven't seen scripts that come out-of-the box that use any of the others; that would be a reason to keep lynx over the others. > usermode/utempter - overlaps with sudo No it doesn't. > nut - nice package, but is it really core materal? It should be. Every UPS at Best Buy and even Wal-Mart has shutdown software for Windows, and nut is the tool to use for Linux. It is useful for both workstations and servers. > dosfttools - looks like mtools superceeds this package. Actually mtools predates dosfstools (I used mtools on Suns at least 12-14 years ago IIRC). However, they don't overlap entirely. Mtools is designed mainly to operate on floppies and wants to do things in terms of drive letters (that have to be configured). Dosfstools has VFAT mkfs and fsck utils that work just like other Unix filesystem mkfs/fsck (and can handle more mkfs options). I don't think mtools includes an fsck equivalent. > strace - looks like ltrace provides same functionality Not at all. Strace looks at system calls and ltrace looks library calls (hence the "s" vs. the "l"). > iptstate - package getting stale In what way? Is there duplicated functionality, or is it in way out of date? It performs its function (quite well), is up to date with respect to the interfaces required, and is the only tool for the job I believe. There are numerous packages that don't get regular updates because they just work and the requirements don't change. I built some walls today, but I didn't go buy a new hammer just because mine is old (although I did look at some new ones at the hardware store!). > lftp - useful ftp client ( ftp, ncftp ) D:0 Lftp is much more useful than ncftp (and lftp is in the default install where ncftp is not). Drop ncftp instead. > a2ps - text to postscript tool required by xfprint No idea how easy a2ps may be to remove, but GNU enscript is another flexible text to Postscript tool that is also included (don't know if the functionality is the same though). > star - tar with acl support. Yes, and AFAIK there is no included alternative to backing up ACLs. > pinfo - another text info file browser - do we need two? The info interface may be great if you are an emacs user, but it is not for the rest of us. Pinfo is far superior for normal people. > freeradius - complex package d:0 So are OpenOffice.org, xorg-x11, kernel, etc. That is no reason to remove something. It is also a useful package for servers. > mc - Is this really a core util? would it be better served in extras? There is no other text-mode file manager (except for a basic bit in lynx IIRC). -- Chris Adams <cmadams@xxxxxxxxxx> Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.
