Re: setup package format v. rpm, reasoning?

[Larry Hall <lh-no-personal-replies-please at cygwin dot com>]

At 07:36 PM 2/15/2005, you wrote:
>I can imagine during the early development of cygwin, the rpm
>package types were rather "unsupportable" -- especially on a
>"first install", since no unix shell or coreutils are available.
>
>However, after the basic support is installed, what was the reasoning
>for keeping packages in YAPM (YetAnotherPackageManager).
>
>It seems even a bit more surprising considering Cygwin's early
>roots coming from a RedHat...
>
>Why is the current setup.exe "format" still the preferred format?
>Would it be beneficial to start having the packages moved toward
>rpm format?  It would be useful, at times, to do the equivalent
>of an "rpm -qf <filelist>", or "rpm -qi" for info, etc...Yes,
>one can continue to reinvent the wheel by writing utils that parse
>file lists in /etc/setup, but it seems that would be 'reinventing'
>the wheel for no great purpose...
>
>So I guess I'm curious why Cygwin uses YAPM since RPM has been
>ported?  I'm not looking for any religious debates -- just
>technical/engineering reasons why a different package.  I'm not
>"sold" on the rpm package manager, just wondering why the need
>for creating another format? 
>It's weird -- I tried installing an RPM, and among files that
>were listed as 'missing' were /bin/rm, /bin/sh, /usr/bin/perl
>and libc -- I can see RPM not knowing about the libc package
>name, but the filenames?  I know they're installed, so what's
>the scoop?


There's been plenty of discussion of this so if you're interested in the
details, see the email archives.  In particular, take a look at a recent
thread (within the last couple of months) on the cygwin-apps list 
discussing setup alternatives and RPM.  I think that thread in particular
provides many of the answers you're looking for.


--
Larry Hall                              http://www.rfk.com
RFK Partners, Inc.                      (508) 893-9779 - RFK Office
838 Washington Street                   (508) 893-9889 - FAX
Holliston, MA 01746                     


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