Issues with removal of specific packages by users / builders

[Patrick]

@nrgaway

Just get rid of the meta packages and use a micro-version of SaltStack, Chef or Puppet to manage the installation and removal of individual packages.

I could set up a Salt minion in a day or so that would be able to manage many scenarios. These management systems can install using the systems package manager or directly from git, pip, ftp, etc. They can also take care of any configurations that may be required.

It can be hard to wrap you head around what they actually can do for you and there is a steep learning curve if you don’t have anything to start with, but if someone like me provided a pretty much complete setup, you would then be able to very easily figure stuff out.

For instance, not that I am suggesting you do this at all, but to give an example to the configuration power they offer, Salt, Chef or Puppet could completely replace the existing Whonix installation where everything is handled by the management software including building VM’s, and the ability to deploy on multiple platforms as it has ability to map package names.

Anyway, just let me know if you want me to though a test system together for you to take a look at as its no bother for me to do so since I will be creating something for myself anyway. Just have to know what you want to see.

Maybe have a glace at Salts reference page, as that may give you an idea of what it can do http://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ref/index.html and most importantly its built in modules http://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/ref/modules/all/index.html

Split and will answer here:
https://forums.whonix.org/t/replacing-whonix-meta-packages-with-saltstack-chef-or-puppet