RPM Community Forums

Mailing List Message of <rpm-lsb>

Re: [packaging] LSB Package API

From: Damon Courtney <damon@installjammer.com>
Date: Mon 23 Jun 2008 - 23:14:55 CEST
Message-Id: <11C856C4-3017-4FC7-8DF9-C31BE4569249@installjammer.com>

On Jun 23, 2008, at 3:43 PM, Jeff Licquia wrote:

> Part of the issue may be that most of the implementations so far have
> assumed that communication from a third-party installer would result  
> in
> a pseudo-package being registered in the native package database,  
> which
> leads people to believe that this is a "new package format" of some
> kind.  The original idea, though, was for a communication protocol  
> only.
>  The native package manager may decide to store the results by  
> creating
> a pseudo-package, but does not *have* to.
>
> I think we're willing to accept that the particular implementations of
> the Berlin API idea are wrong-headed, and perhaps re-do them.  But the
> general idea--accepting that things such as InstallShield and
> InstallAnywhere are going to exist, and finding a way for them to
> cooperate with the underlying system instead of fighting with it-- 
> isn't
> something I see anyone else trying to address.


     Speaking as the developer of an installer that has to fight with  
this all the time, all I'm really looking for is a simple command-line  
utility to interface to the native package manager beneath me.  A  
simple abstraction layer in the style of the xdg-utils of the Portland  
project.  Something that didn't require root would be nice, but I'm  
not sure how you'd handle this on a multi-user system.

     As it is now, I have to manipulate the underlying packaging  
system by-hand and through fake packages built at runtime and the  
like.  It's crap, but it's the only outlet available until something  
better comes along.

     I guess I don't understand what is so difficult about the  
decision except that everyone has a better way than the other guy.   
Make something simple that gets the job done.  Believe me, plenty of  
people will come along later and glom more crap onto it.  It's open  
source, after all.

Damon
Received on Mon Jun 23 23:34:08 2008
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