Re: RPM under Debian?

[Jernej Zajc <jernej@4u.net>]

Mitch Blevins wrote:
> 
> Jernej Zajc wrote:
> > 
> > Call me a silly fool, but I cannot but wonder would it be possible
> > to make a pkg mgmt program (drpm :-)) that would install RPM
> > packages from their native format and put the installed files' and
> > dependencies info in the deb database?
> >
> > Any dpkg developers willing to comment the idea?
> 
> #!/bin/bash
> # drpm - program to install RPM and DEB packages from their
> # native format and put the installed files and dependencies
> # info in the deb database
> # (also does Stampede packages)
> #
> # usage: drpm <packagefile> [<packagefile>] ..
> 
> for filename in "$@"; do
>   case ${filename} in
>     *.rpm|*.slp ) alien --install ${filename} ;;
>     *.deb ) dpkg --install ${filename} ;;
>     * ) echo "Huh?" ;;
>   esac
> done
> 
> # end drpm
> 
> The above script does what you want (in a limited way).
> The issue is not compatibility of the formats, but rather compatibility
> of the contained programs and their file locations.
> 
> Example:
> foo.deb - keeps config file in /etc/foo.conf
> foo.rpm - keeps config file in /usr/some/other/location/foo.conf
> 
> bar.deb - depends on foo.deb
>           Has a post-install script that parses the information in foo.conf
>           and fails miserably to find the file from the converted RPM.
> 
> Requiring the maintainer of a Debian package to be compatible with not only
> the relevant deb files, but also with any possible rpm (Official or not) that
> may be floating out on the web would be intractable.
> 
> Debian is able to do some amazing things because the packages can depend
> on other packages conforming to Debian policy and conventions.
> Have you played with apache and its modules on Debian?  Great stuff!
> You can drop the mod-perl deb on top of the apache deb and it reconfigures
> itself almost as if by magic.
> 
> Developers are now working on configuration tools and the ability to
> administer multiple machines centrally.  This would not be possible if
> it had to support foreign packaging systems and their non-Debian-aware
> install scripts.  We should not hold back progress of our distribution
> to accomodate less-advanced formats.... especially when Debian has the
> most packages availble compared to any other distro.
> 
> -Mitch
> 

Now I get the idea. It is virtually impossible for RPM support
to be implemented in a manner that would work w/o problems.

I was wondering about RPM since some people suggested that RPM
support could (will, some said) play a key role as a selection
criterion in competition among Linux distros. I wouldn't bother
about this, at least not much, but Eric S. Raymond said this, so
I looked at it again.

Jernej