Re: New package managment

[Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.net>]

Bryan Patrick Coleman wrote:
> 
> I am considering creating a semi new package managment system for a
> distrobution I am putting together. I know that several of the people on
> this list are unhappy with what is currently available. What kind of

> capabilities would you like to see go into a package managment (installer)
> utility?

I like autoconf/automake - what I think is majorly bad is the:


BAD (but typical) STORY:

   I want to run pingus (say)
     ...I download...
     ./configure ; make ; make install
     ...it says I need 'clanlib'...
     ...where is the clanlib home page?
     ...search using Google/Yahoo/whatever...
     I need to get Clanlib.
        ....I download...
        ./configure ; make ; make install
        ...it says I need 'hermes'...
        ...where is the hermes home page?
        ...search using Google/Yahoo/whatever...
        I need to get Hermes.
          ...I download...
          ./configure ; make ; make install
          Whoopie I have Hermes!!!
        ./configure ; make ; make install
        Whoopie I have Clanlib.
      ./configure ; make ; make install
      Oh shit. It wants an OLD version of Clanlib...

   ...Repeat ad nauseam.


BETTER STORY:

You go to the Pingus site and download a *tiny* script:

   pingus.autoweb

   ...which checks to see if clanlib is installed and if
   not - knows a good place to download it from - so it
   downloads a script from the clanlib site:

      clanlib.autoweb

     ...which is run (automatically) - and which checks to see
     if hermes is installed - and if not, it knows a good place
     to download it from - so it downloads a script from the
     hermes site:

        hermes.autoweb
  
        ...which sees that it has everything it needs, and downloads
        the relevent tarball, untars it runs configure/make/make install
        and returns SUCCESS...

     ...so the clanlib tarball downloads, it runs configure/make/make
install
     and returns SUCCESS...

   ....so the pingus tarball downloads, runs configure/make/make install
   and returns SUCCESS.

Notice that if one of those packages didn't use the autoconf/automake
mechanism, it's autoweb script can run whatever other set of commands
are needed to build with.

If (say) Hermes didn't subscribe to this grand scheme, then the authors
of clanlib could have the clanlib autoweb script get the hermes.autoweb
script from one on the clanlib site - and have it STILL grab the
tarball.

A good tool would autogenerate the '.autoweb' scripts from some simple
source, it would also know about mirror sites for the tarball it'll
download - so your main web site only has to serve the itty-bitty script
and the user can be forced to go to mirror sites for the other stuff.

If such a scheme were to become more widespread, it would do GREAT
things
for source-based packages.  People simply **HATE** following the paper
trail to get all the libraries that a complex modern game needs.

This would reduce the entire installation to downloading a single
script and running it at the command prompt.  It's possible one could
imagine a Netscape plugin that would run autoweb scripts - and hence
reduce it to a single keyclick.

-- 
Steve Baker                  http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
sjbaker1@airmail.net (home)  http://www.woodsoup.org/~sbaker
sjbaker@hti.com      (work)