[lsb-discuss] Packaging

Alexey Eremenko al4321 at gmail.com
Sat Oct 21 12:47:29 PDT 2006


hi all !

before I begin lets learn two terms:
-first package manager (=distro-specific-PM) (=base PM)
-second package manager (=LSB-PM)

I thought about package managers recently.

I think that by converting packages (from second to first, like
alien), it would be hard to achieve good stability.

I came to conclusion that second package manager must exist, with only
few mandatory packages installed already, those are:

1. LSB
2. LSB-Desktop

This way, all apps and plugins will be dependent on those 2 packages
(which must always exists), so this way all normal GUI applications
(like Photoshop) could be installed easily.

Now with plugins it is a bit more complex.
What if you want to install a plugin for FireFox ?

I think that the second (read third-party) package manager must copy
it from the first package manager (read the PM, that's included with
your OS).
i.e. Re-Register with LSB PM.
This idea (unlike alien) will not mess the base PM, so at worst case
your plugin will work after you install manually second copy of
FireFox.

So with my approach the max risk is:
Having 2 copies of FireFox installed side-by-side. (one from LSB PM,
one from base PM)

With alien approach the max risk is:
ending up with messed package manager that refuses to work.

===============================================
WARNING: for Open-Minded people Only !
Other things to think about:

1. Do we need conventional Packages for third party apps ?

I think something revolutionary such as "klik" is very good.
i.e. we still need ability to register packages with desktop
environment and resolve-dependencies of course, but I don't think that
we absolutely must install packages as we do it with rpm/deb. I think
just running them uninstalled (like klik) is good idea. (provided we
can register them in our start menus)

Bottom Line: We need some technology that has advantages of both klik
and rpm/deb.

for those new to the concept:
Klik allows users to download-and-click on klik packages to run them
instantly, without installing anything, which is very convenient.

read more on: klik.atekon.de

2. The second PM must be optimized for user-wide setups instead of
system-wide setups.
While both rpm & deb allows to install for single user-only by doing
tricks, this is non-standard procedure.... why is this ?

In Home environments it is nice to let 2 users install each to his own
account without messing the rest of the system. ...And make it easy to
install is important too !




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