JFYI, as I'm not sure someone of the dpkg devs is on the
distributions@l.freedesktop.o list. You might want to voice your
comments on the topic.
Thanks for maintaining dpkg!
Cheers.
----- Forwarded message from Denis Washington <dwashington@gmx.net> -----
Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:46:39 +0200
From: Denis Washington <dwashington@gmx.net>
To: Distributions@lists.freedesktop.org
Subject: An attempt at improving cross-distribution software deployment: The
Psys Library
Hi,
Cross-distribution software deployment on Linux remains to be a big
problem. Basically, an independent software provider (ISV) has two
choices:
- Creating separate packages for every distribution (or, at least,
every package format). This provides a high level of integration with
the distribution, but is a relatively high investment for an ISV,
which must not understand only one, but multiple packaging systems.
Also, this approach doesn't help users of smaller distributions with
less-mainstream packaging systems, for which most probably no packages
will be built.
- Bypassing the package manager completely by deploying an executable
installer which essentially just copies files. This has the obvious
advantage of really working on any distribution, and also lowers the
level of investment required by the ISV remarkably (especially if the
software is deployed with a cross-platform installer framework, which
requires the ISV to develop only one solution for all supported
operating systems). But the equally obvious disadvantage is the
complete lack of integration; the package manager has no control over
the installation and cannot avoid conflicts with other packages, and
users cannot manage (e.g. uninstall) the software with their
distribution's software management tools.
As can be seen quickly, both solutions are far from optimal.
In 2006, the Free Standards Group (the organisation behind the LSB,
whose CTO was Debian founder Ian Murdock at that time) attempted to do
better. In an LSB face-to-face meeting in Berlin, attended by several
representatives of major distributions (including Red Hat, Novell,
Mandriva and Ubuntu) and ISVs, the topic was discussed. The approach
promoted by Murdock, and generally agreed upon by the attendants, was
to bridge the gap between executable installers and package managers
with a simple LSB-standardized programming interface - later codenamed
the "Berlin Packaging API". The idea was to enable installer programs
to tell the package manager when they install or uninstall software,
giving the package manager the opportunity to update its package
database accordingly [1]. Unfortunately, this idea didn't seem to be
followed by any kind of standards process or implementation effort,
and so the project eventually died.
Today, I am pleased to announce a project to you which tries to
reignite the Berlin Packaging API effort with a concrete design and a
proof-of-concept implementation ready for testing: the "Psys Library".
From the README:
"The psys library provides a simple interface to the system package
managerof a Linux system. It allows installation programs to notify
the packagemanager of the installation, uninstallation and update of
third-partysoftware packages, and to request these packages to be
added to or removed from the system package database. The psys library
interface is generic and not tied to a specific package management
system or Linux distribution.
Note that the psys library is only useful for adding and removing
software which complies to the Linux Standard Base (LSB)
specifications. Most notably, it is assumed that the data files of a
software package are installed into /opt as demanded by the Filesystem
Hierarchy Standard (FHS), and that a package only depends on the
interfaces and behavior specified by the LSB; any additional
dependencies must be contained within the package itself.
The psys library interface is strongly influenced by the Berlin
Packaging API concept discussed at the 2006 LSB face-to-face meeting
in Berlin. The library interface is meant as a proposal for a future
version of the LSB standard."
More information, including the complete API documentation and a link
to the git repository with the source code, can be found on the
project page [2].
Now, I am asking you for support. While the psys library in its
current form does, in fact, already offer basic integration into RPM-
and Debian-based distributions through "fallback backends" (see the
project wiki), the greatest level of integration can only be received
if the implementation is provided by distributions directly. The
question is: can you imagine adding support for a programming
interface like this in your distribution? If not, why? And if you do,
what do you think of the psys API in its current form? Where do you
think it is lacking? Flawed? Complete BS?
I am thrilled to hear your replies, and hope we can all together make
something happen to improve the state of third-party software
deployment on Linux.
Best regards,
Denis Washington
[1] http://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/Berlin_Packaging_API
[2] http://gitorious.org/libpsys
P.S.: You might remember an earlier (2008), somewhat over-engineered
attempt of mine to implement the Berlin Packaging API concept, the
"Burgdorf Packaging API"
(http://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/Burgdorf_Packaging_API), which
spawned quite a lot of discussion at that time. Let me assure you,
though, that the psys library is much simpler (and also already more
advanced) in design and implementation than Burgdorf, and much lighter
in terms of dependencies (libc, essentially).
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----- End forwarded message -----
--
Stefano Zacchiroli -o- PhD in Computer Science \ PostDoc @ Univ. Paris 7
zack@{upsilon.cc,pps.jussieu.fr,debian.org} -<>- http://upsilon.cc/zack/
Dietro un grande uomo c'è ..| . |. Et ne m'en veux pas si je te tutoie
sempre uno zaino ...........| ..: |.... Je dis tu à tous ceux que j'aime
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