[18:22] <ojwb> morning
[19:12] <mwhudson> morning
[19:17] <ajmitch> morning
[19:26] <chilts> morning
[19:26] <Atamira> good morning
[19:26] <Atamira> anyone used mint?
[19:33] <hads> morning
[20:23] <ojwb> Atamira: only as a herb
[20:24]  * ojwb really can't see a distro which is just derived from another catching on
[20:27] <Atamira> herb?
[20:28] <Atamira> ohh
[20:28] <Atamira> heh
[20:28] <Atamira> i just want to get off unity
[20:30] <ajmitch> sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop
[20:31] <ajmitch> or whichever takes your fancy, it can be easier than reinstalling with a different distro
[20:32]  * ajmitch currently just uses the gnome fallback session when not using unity
[20:33] <Atamira> ooo thanks. ill do it when i get back
[20:33] <Atamira> i like some things in it, but trying to find what i want when i dont know the name of it is annoyin g
[21:04] <mwhudson> stupid question, but is there an easy way of telling if an apt-style dependency (e.g. pkg-name >= 0.1) is satisfied on the current system?
[21:05] <chilts> I sometimes use apt-cache policy <pkgname> to see what version is installed and if there are candidates
[21:05] <chilts> but that's me, do you need something for a program to read?
[21:06] <mwhudson> ideally
[21:06] <mwhudson> i guess i want to know, given a string $str, if apt-get install $str would do anything
[21:07] <mwhudson> i guess i could parse the output of apt-get install --dry-run...
[21:08] <mwhudson> that might not be completely insane, actually
[21:08] <chilts> yeah, I was just about to suggest that, and maybe the return value tells you whether something would have happened
[21:08]  * chilts guesses
[21:09] <mwhudson> apparently not
[21:10] <chilts> if you can 'apt-cache policy $pkg' and compare the 2nd fields of lines 2 and 3, there's your answer
[21:10] <chilts> there may well be a shorter way :D
[21:10] <chilts> but that's a start
[21:10] <ojwb> that doesn't consider whether it could actually be installed though
[21:10] <mwhudson> chilts: no, i don't think that's right
[21:11] <mwhudson> i think apt-get install --dry-run $str | grep ^Inst is pretty close though
[21:11] <ojwb> though without knowing the motivation, it's hard to know exactly what the right answer is
[21:11] <chilts> yeah, just a suggestion :)
[21:11] <mwhudson> ojwb: motivation is to allow people to declare requirements and complain if they are not met
[21:11] <chilts> mwhudson: why do you need to know if it _might_ do something?
[21:11] <mwhudson> kinda like build-deps i guess, except not actually the same
[21:12] <ojwb> what does the complaining?
[21:12] <mwhudson> ojwb: my code
[21:12] <mwhudson> to explain a bit more
[21:12] <mwhudson> i do automated testing
[21:13] <mwhudson> when running code that depends on packages on the device being tested which just install them
[21:13] <mwhudson> but we're now starting to do things like run audio capture on the system driving it all
[21:13] <mwhudson> to do this you need to have some packages installed
[21:13] <chilts> mwhudson: if something _can_ be done, would you then just install it?
[21:13] <mwhudson> no
[21:13] <chilts> ok
[21:14] <mwhudson> i would reject the test job
[21:14] <ojwb> the trick things like pbuilder use is to generate a dummy package with the dependencies and (try to) install that
[21:14] <mwhudson> ojwb: yeah i've done that too
[21:14] <mwhudson> ojwb: but i don't want to install the dependencies
[21:14] <ojwb> oh, you just want to test
[21:14] <mwhudson> just know if they are already there
[21:14] <ojwb> and fail if not
[21:15] <mwhudson> i guess i could abuse dpkg-checkbuilddeps ….
[21:19] <mwhudson> anyway, back to real work
[21:19] <ibeardslee> morning
[21:40] <Atamira> ooo.i like xubuntu
[22:25] <chilts> does xubuntu not install Ubunto One and all the other stuff by default?
[22:27] <ajmitch> not sure, I've never installed from an iso for xubuntu
[22:27] <ajmitch> xubuntu-desktop doesn't look to depend on or recommend ubuntuone
[22:28] <ajmitch> most of the UI integration for ubuntuone is in nautilus
[22:29] <chilts> I might try Lubuntu or Xubuntu next time
[22:30] <chilts> in fact, I might be reinstalling my new laptop
[22:35] <ibeardslee> when I come to wipe my old netbook I'm going to try other versions