Re: RFC

[Jeffrey Watts <watts@jayhawks.net>]

On 16 Mar 2000, Jochem Huhmann wrote:

> RPM has no way to tell between "system software" and "totally
> unimportant stuff". A package is a package is a package. That's the
> problem. And RPMs can support relocatable packages only in so far as
> the software it carries; if this software has hardcoded paths in it,
> this is meaningless. This won't change to soon, so either one has to
> accept this /usr-bloat or has to specify where things should go to. If
> you say "hey, you can decide yourself, it's relocatable" you don't
> need standards at all.

In no way should the package manager be deciding where to install
software.  That's what the distributors are for.  A package manager should
be reading the destination from the command line if it is present, or from
the locations specified in the package.

We don't want a smart package manager.  The distributions wouldn't use it,
and it would piss off sysadmins like me that want real control.

It would be like having Pine type your emails for you.  Did Pine type out
this message for me?  Did it correctly detect that sarcasm was needed for
this email?  Nope.  I did that myself.  :-)

J.

o-----------------------------------o
| Jeffrey Watts                     |
| watts@jayhawks.net         o-------------------------------------------o
| Systems Programmer         | "Is uniformity [of religion] attainable?  |
| Network Systems Management |  Millions of innocent men, women, and     |
| Sprint Communications      |  children, since the introduction of      |
o----------------------------|  Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, |
                             |  fined, imprisoned; yet we have not       |
                             |  advanced one inch towards uniformity.    |
                             |  -- Thomas Jefferson, "Notes on Virginia" |
                             o-------------------------------------------o