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Re: [FLAME WARNING] Linux Standards Base and Debian



On Wed, May 09, 2001 at 01:08:21PM -0400, Albert den Haan wrote:
> The LSB's LCD ("Lowest Common Denominator") is working on a simple package
> system that is the *intersection* of capabilities the major ones in current
> use.  Yes the RPM V3 [1] package archive file format is being used (as
> *.lsb files), but to handle data dpkg both requires and will not choke on.  
[snip]
> 
> [1] Note that this archive file format is understood by both the rpm V3 and
> V4 programs.

may i suggest you use a more generic format?  .debs are nothing more
then an ar archive containing a couple gzipped tarballs.  they can
extracted on virtually any system, regardless of OS even.  this is a
tremendous advantage IMO, both because for example slackware need not
put rpm into thier distro, and more importantly for recovery
purposes.  it can be a life saver to be able to quickly extract a
package on a badly hosed system.  (lets say a bout of filesystem
corruption wipes out /bin/rpm) and yes i have had this type of thing
happen before.  debian's human readable and editable package database,
and open and standard ar+tar+gzip package format saved me from a
reinstall.  

this choice of using the rpm binary format should be reconsidered
IMNSHO.  i don't really care whether you use the debian ar+tar+gzip,
or just plain .tar.gz, just use something i can extract *anywhere*
with the most basic and standard tools, without having to go and
compile rpm or some rpm archive extracter.

-- 
Ethan Benson
http://www.alaska.net/~erbenson/

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