Message-Id:	<200303171316.h2HDGvv10507@delorie.com>
Sender:	rich AT phekda DOT freeserve DOT co DOT uk
Date:	Mon, 17 Mar 2003 11:46:21 +0000
From:	Richard Dawe <rich AT phekda DOT freeserve DOT co DOT uk>
X-Accept-Language:	de,fr
To:	DJGPP announcements <djgpp-announce AT delorie DOT com>
CC:	pakke Workers <pakke-workers AT yahoogroups DOT com>
Subject:	ANNOUNCE: pakke 0.2.3, DSM specification 0.6.1

Hello.

I'd like to announce version 0.2.3 of pakke, a package manager for DJGPP. This
is a bugfix release. With pakke you can:

* install packages,
* uninstall packages,
* upgrade packages.

using fairly simple command-lines, e.g.:

    pakke --verbose --install gmp412.zip

to install GMP 4.1.2 binaries; or:

    pakke --verbose --upgrade 'binutils 2.13 (binaries)'

to upgrade to binutils 2.13 from an earlier version.

The main user-visible changes in pakke are:

  * Accept the '-h' and '--hash' options for compatibility with RPM.
    Support for displaying progress will be added to a later version
    of pakke.

  * Allow the HTTP or FTP mirror to be specified on the command-line
    using the '--mirror' option.

  * Flush the input buffer, before getting the user's response
    to questions. pakke should now handle the user's response
    identically on all platforms. Previously it did not use unbuffered
    input on non-DJGPP platforms.

  * When installing/upgrading/uninstalling, allow the user to specify
    an action for all files. E.g. for uninstalling:

    [r]emove, [R]emove all, [b]ackup, [B]ackup all, [k]eep, [K]eep all
    or [a]bort?

  * --syncdb should not fail, if there are no DSMs available.
    It now keeps on going, when no manifests or available DSMs are found
    and warns if a package is unmatched. E.g.: a warning is issued
    when a package has a manifest, but no DSM can be found for it
    in the installed or available databases.

  * When --upgrade detects that the package is already installed,
    it will now print less confusing messages. It should also only fail
    if the archives were corrupt.

  * --install and --upgrade should now work correctly, when
    installing packages where the path to a package is given.
    Previously it could fail, when the path was drive-letter relative,
    e.g. z:foo.zip.

Please see NEWS from the binary, documentation, source distributions or the
pakke home page (see below for a URL) for more details.

pakke can do its magic by using DSMs, which contain descriptions of a package.
pakke comes with DSMs for many DJGPP packages, although the list may not
contain all the latest DJGPP packages. The latest DJGPP packages have DSMs in
a package called djgpp-dsms, which can be found in the v2 directory of the
DJGPP archive on Simtel.NET as ds??????.zip, where the '?' symbols represent
the date. pakke can check for the latest version djgpp-dsms using 'pakke
--syncdb'.

pakke is available from the DJGPP archive on Simtel.NET and its mirrors. You
can download it from here:

Binary distribution:
http://www.simtel.net/gnudlpage.php?product=/gnu/djgpp/v2/pakk023b.zip&name=pakk023b.zip

Documentation distribution:
http://www.simtel.net/gnudlpage.php?product=/gnu/djgpp/v2/pakk023d.zip&name=pakk023d.zip

Source distribution:
http://www.simtel.net/gnudlpage.php?product=/gnu/djgpp/v2/pakk023s.zip&name=pakk023s.zip

If you just wish to use pakke, please download the binary distribution. The
binary distribution includes documentation in info format. If you wish to view
the documentation in DVI, PostScript of HTML format, please download the
documentation distribution. If you wish to rebuild pakke or examine its
sources, please download the source distribution. Installation instructions
are here:

    http://www.phekda.freeserve.co.uk/richdawe/pakke/install.txt

The pakke binary distribution comes with a program called dsmcheck, which can
be used to check the syntax of DSMs.

I'd also like to announce version 0.6.1 of the DSM specification, which is the
format for descriptions of DJGPP packages. The DSM specification is available
from the top-level directory of Simtel.NET:

    ftp://ftp.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/gnu/djgpp/dsm-spec.txt

You may wish to read the pakke home page, using the URL below. You may also
want to read the pakke & DSM documentation available from this page.

    http://www.phekda.freeserve.co.uk/richdawe/pakke/

If you have any comments, problems, etc., please mail send mail to
pakke-workers AT yahoogroups DOT com.

Finally, thanks to those people who have use pakke and have given feedback on
it!

Bye,

-- 
Richard Dawe [ http://www.phekda.freeserve.co.uk/richdawe/ ]

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