Package distribution hassles - a proposal.

[John H Terpstra]

On Mon, 4 Mar 2002, Max TenEyck Woodbury wrote:

> > Looking forward to the next step. How shall we proceed?
>
> I take it that the process and inputs looks correct to you.

You might want to read the Maximum RPM book before you get too far into
this project. You will find it at www.rpm.org.

>
> Next, I figure out how to specify the inputs, lash up an
> example and post the result for your review. While you're
> reviewing that, I start to implement the procedure. Be
> warned, it will probably be a crude bailing wire and
> chewing gum sort of thing with bash scripts, make files
> and maybe a C program or two to start with. First pass
> will NOT do anything except read the spec and announce what
> steps it should be taking. You get to check that out
> to assure that I haven't pulled any major boners at that
> stage.
>
> After that I fix the parts that don't work (i.e. everything).
> (If this sounds a little strange, you might be interested to
> know that I learned programming by debugging my father's code.)
> A lot of the steps are very straight forward and should fall
> into place quickly. Once the simple stuff is in place, that
> will need to be checked, while I start putting the more
> complicated pieces in place. You get to review that. At that
> point we should have a tool that can build and test at least
> one kind of binary distribution. (Almost certainly the current
> Red Hat variant.)
>
> After that, we need to try it on older distributions, try adding
> patches, and other packagers. Problems will arise and need to
> be fixed. If you aren't completely fed up with me and the project
> after that, a man page or some other basic documentation would be
> next.
>
> I don't know the details of what happens after that. If you find
> it useful, decisions will have to be made about extending it to
> a non-rpm environment, better documentation and maintenance. You
> could be so mad at me for wasting your time that you never want
> to see the cussed thing again.

Show us the stuff, we are all behind you. There are no rules - so you can
create your own solution. Let's look at what you come up with and then we
can look at how to improve it.

Cheers,
John T.

-- 
John H Terpstra
Email: jht at samba.org

An argument of minds:
"Please help me to find the intellect in Intellectual Property"
"Not me, I can't find the property in it either!"