> On Feb 1, 2024, at 5:25 AM, anonym <anonym@???> wrote:
> But, as already shown above, Tails allows you to customize it extensively through the persistence feature. The Additional Software persistence feature [3] allows you to keep any package from Debian installed and up-to-date, so just install python3-pip and the other tools you like that way.
>
> [3] https://tails.net/doc/persistent_storage/additional_software/
>
>> A persistent storage feature for user installed python packages could also be designed to be a hook that adds the appropriate corresponding .local folders to the persistence.conf upon activation of the feature.
>
> It is not a documented feature any more (I think because of bugs like #19267) but you can also make any folder persistent yourself. Start Tails with an administration password, login, start a Root Terminal.
>
> This makes ~/.local persistent:
>
> echo '/home/amnesia/.local source=dot-local' \
> >> /live/persistence/TailsData_unlocked/persistence.conf
>
> You can do this multiple times, so this also makes the pip cache persistent:
>
> echo '/home/amnesia/.cache/pip source=pip-cache' \
> >> /live/persistence/TailsData_unlocked/persistence.conf
>
> The `source=pip-cache` part means that the data will be stored on the persistent storage in `/live/persistence/TailsData_unlocked/pip-cache`, so just make sure to never re-use the same source as any other line in that file. You must restart Tails for lines added like this to take effect.
I strongly recommend *documenting* this capability (e.g., in "additional software").
There's no way this group can directly support all special needs, but documenting how
people can self-help would be really valuable. A few specific examples of common cases
(I'd put pip in that category) would be especially helpful.
--- David A. Wheeler
