Re: Package format/management ramblingss

[Barry deFreese]

Richard Stallman wrote:

> The dependency and relation features of Debian packages are very
> important.  Our packaging systems, both temporary and ultimate, should
> definitely have those features.
>  

Agreed.  From a user perspective, I very much like dpkg/apt.

>       Stow:
>
>       Lightweight, easy to use package management utilizing .tar.gz
>       archives.  Also happens to be a GNU project.
>
>    Stow isn't really a package manager, but a symlink-farm creator.  Also
>    stow does not use .tar.gz files, it uses a already installed package,
>    a package that has been installed into a separate directory.
>
> That is pretty close to the way Hurd-based package management will
> work, so I think we should use Stow for the actual installation part
> of the job.  That way, when we do theHurd-based package management,
> it won't be too big a change.
>  

Stow is small and reliant on Perl.  If the goal is to write our own, why 
not do it now?

> The general idea of the Hurd-based package management is that you
> unpack a tar file as a directory, make a link to that directory from a
> special place, and the contents are automatically installed.
> So I think we should combine parts of these package systems:
>
> * Use tar to unpack.
>
> * The directory, as unpacked, contains the metadata to express
> the relationships with other packages.
>
> * Install the directory using Stow, perhaps with added features.
> Later we'll replace Stow with the Hurd-based magic link feature.
>
>  
So the the tarballs now contain the binary "application" and the 
metadata?  So we must re-create every tarball?  If that's the case, I 
like Marco's packagefs idea.  Of course I really like what Jereon was 
saying today on #hurd about the pax format.

So we:

* pull the pax file which contains the package and the metadata 
(relationships, install paths for stow, pre/post scripts??)
* the package gets dumped to packagefs which automagically creates the 
appropriate symlinks

Am I getting this correctly?? :-)

Mr. Stallman, maybe you should join us on freenode on occasion.. ;-P

--
Barry deFreese
Debian 3.0r1 "Woody"
GNU/Hurd
Registered Linux "Newbie" #302256 - Hurd H4XX0r wannabe

"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving
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trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is
winning." Rich Cook.