DPKG-MOUNTABLE

This is a new installation method for dselect, which speeds up some
installations quite dramatically, as well as having a few other features (such
as logging and local packages) which I have been looking for for a while.

This is not a final version, but I believe it to be usable enough to be useful
to a lot of people.

AUTOMATIC MOUNTING AND UNMOUNTING
  If the root filesystem you specify is not mounted when you invoke any of the
  methods, it will be automatically mounted, and unmounted again at the end.
  If it is already mounted, it will not be unmounted afterwards.

  This allows hacks like specifying the root filesystem '/', and then using
  any path on your local system, if you keep a local copy of the Debian
  distribution, as well as not interfering with any other work you may be
  doing with the mounted Debian tree at the same time.

FLEXIBLE CONFIGURATION
  Having named your root filesystem and path, you will be given a choice of
  distributions to install. These are:
    * stable	The current stable distribution, including non-free and
		contrib.
    * frozen	The frozen distribution, if present, including non-free and
		contrib.
    * unstable	The current unstable distribution as above.
    * developer	As for unstable, but also includes packages in experimental.
		Only use this if you're sure you want to!
    * manual	Allows you to enter the paths yourself.

PROVISION FOR LOCAL PACKAGES
  If you keep a local copy of parts of the Debian distribution---for example
  because your local mirror doesn't include the non-us packages and you want
  PGP, or because you've packaged your favourite program but not well enough
  to want to show anybody---you can specify a directory tree where all these
  are, and ask dpkg-mountable to search that tree for packages as well as the
  main distribution.

  Often this new tree will mirror the existing package tree, and there will be
  no problems. If you want to use a different tree, though, you can simply use
  the manual configuration option and add this directory to the list of paths.
  (If you do this, it is recommended that you first configure with one of the
  automatic options, and then reconfigure manually, as then you'll get a
  reasonable list of paths to start with.)

LOGGING OF ALL DPKG INSTALLATIONS
  Unfortunately, this is only possible for the installation, and not
  removal, configuration, and so on, due to the design of dselect. A log of
  the installation session, including all output from dpkg as well as all
  user input, is kept in /var/log/dpkg-mountable.

 -- Andy Mortimer <andy.mortimer@poboxes.com>
