1 |
On Tuesday 10 July 2001 09:00, you wrote: |
2 |
> On Tue, Jul 10, 2001 at 08:52:13AM +0300, Dan Armak wrote: |
3 |
> > I still don't think this should ever be done. Can anyone give me an |
4 |
> > example of a situation where installing an RPM is better than all the |
5 |
> > alternatives? |
6 |
> |
7 |
> For binary CDs of commercial software, RPM version 3 is the most |
8 |
> widely-accepted packaging format. So it makes sense for a lot of people |
9 |
> making binaries for Linux, I suppose. The Amiga SDK uses RPM to install. |
10 |
|
11 |
It may make sense for them, because they only have to create one standard |
12 |
version of their CD. It doesn't for the end-recipients, who may or may not |
13 |
have RPM-based systems. |
14 |
|
15 |
I agree that _some_ sort of standard binary package distribution is needed in |
16 |
som situations. However, RPM is very unsuitable for this. It has its own |
17 |
dependency implementation, and because different distributions and even |
18 |
different versions of the same distribution need different RPMs for some |
19 |
reason, this dependency system cannot become universal. A SuSE RPM doesn't |
20 |
always work on Redhat, even though both distros are completely RPM-based and |
21 |
may run exactly the same software. |
22 |
|
23 |
Each distro has its own dependency database. The only really suitable kind of |
24 |
binary package is a simple tarball, to be extracted either at / or the |
25 |
install location (i.e. /usr). The local dependency system (Portage, RPM, |
26 |
whatever) can then generate MD% checksus and filelists and whatever else it |
27 |
may want. Such a package would either be self-contained (static) or be |
28 |
accompanied by the required libs in the same manner. In any case RPMs can't |
29 |
be used because they depend on other RPMs and have a complex system of |
30 |
virtual provides. |
31 |
|
32 |
In any case a binary distribution can never be as flexible and (above all) |
33 |
'standard' as a source distribution. And if the 'commercial vendors' aren't |
34 |
satisfied, they can go open source. |
35 |
|
36 |
(I like to write long letters :-) |
37 |
|
38 |
Dan |