Re: RPM (Was Re: Deity project schedule problems)
There has been much said on this subject, so here is my 2 cents.
Most everyone agrees that dpkg is more functional than rpm, although some
folks seem to see these features as "baggage". So I ask,"Why should be go
back down the mountain and hitch our horses to the rpm wagon? We're most
of the way to the top now!". Why do all the work on dependencies and
conflicts all over again for a tool that has admitted design flaws? The
only argument I have heard is "compatability" with the "rest" of the Linux
community. I would say that this is exactly why we should not do this! The
supposed "standard" has been created by the three leading "commercial"
vendors. As has been pointed out, these three distributions have major
problems integrating packages made for the others.
Bruce is correct when he says that Debian is more than a packaging system.
I would argue that it is this packaging system, however, that makes the
adherence to file standards and other Debian policies possible. Converting
to rpm will only create intractable configuration problems. We currently
only need ask "What version of Debian do you have installed...What version
of the package do you have installed?" to be able to determine what the
possible problems are. If we open the door to rpm packages the
interactions between Debian and non-Debian sofware will quickly become too
complex to deal with effectively.
Asside from setting up the access method and updating the available file
from the packages files found in the archive, dselect really only does one
job. Dselect's primary function is to edit the status file. Dpkg is then
called to traverse the archive and install the packages. As others have
pointed out, dpkg is easy to use and functions almost flawlessly in it's
task. (I don't mean to imply that it doesn't have bugs that need fixing,
only that it is very mature and works fine in most circumstances.) The
reason that dselect is such a problem is its visibility, and the need for
new users to expose themselves to it. We can certainly fix these problems
easier that rebuilding the whole distribution from scratch.
Waiting is,
Dwarf
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