On Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:52:22 -0500, Jeff Johnson <n3npq@mac.com> wrote:
> One of the ideas proposed back in June by jasonc was to set up
> a small "reference" distribution. Say, all the packages necessary
> to run /bin/sh in a chroot.
> 
> The rationale for doing so is to examine (and change) the
> manner in which a linux distro is bootstrapped.

That makes a lot of sense... If it's done right, we'd definitely be willing
to switch Ark to be built on top of that. If it's done really well, we
might be finally accomplish what UnitedLinux and similar attempts failed to
do.

Not sure whether the best way to go about it is to import an existing
distro's core packages and fix its flaws or just to do things right for the
few base packages (and making use of new rpm5 features where it makes
sense) from scratch -- both approaches have their {dis,}advantages.

> 2) glibc

Another gripe with traditional glibc packaging:
/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive is packaged, putting some 60 MB into a base
package. Not a big problem for a desktop or server, but it's a pain if
you're trying to use the same set of RPMs on an embedded system.
We have a workaround in Ark packaging, but it's not quite perfect, I think
there must be a better solution than what we're doing right now.

> 3) basesystem is just a useless pkg these days. AFAIK,
> the original intent was to use the basesystem version as the
> distro version, but that rule is imperfectly followed many years now.

Guess it has been replaced with {ark,fedora,redhat,mandriva,...}-release
packages for virtually all of us. Given that, and the fact that hopefully
several distros will pick up the reference distro as a base, it may make
sense to keep basesystem there to have a common point of reference for all
derived distros -- but maybe some lsb-* package replaces that point.

> And a "reference" distro needs to be achieved, whether
> through artificial insemination or adoption, in order to
> establish reproducers for the rpmlib install state machine.

Let's get started... I've created #rpm5distro on irc.freenode.net for
anyone interested. (Keep timezones in mind - I'll be gone for a couple of
hours right now ;) ).

ttyl
bero