Date:	Mon, 5 May 1997 17:47:34 -0400 (EDT)
From:	"Mike A. Harris" <mharris AT blackwidow DOT saultc DOT on DOT ca>
Reply-To:	"Mike A. Harris" <mharris AT blackwidow DOT saultc DOT on DOT ca>
To:	pierre AT tycho DOT com
cc:	OpenDOS Mailing List <opendos AT delorie DOT com>
Subject:	Re: OpenDOS distribution
In-Reply-To:	<Pine.LNX.3.95.970505082716.3356C-100000@55-174.hy.cgocable.ca>
Message-ID:	<Pine.LNX.3.95.970505172851.9545Z-100000@capslock.com>
Organization:	Total disorganization.
MIME-Version:	1.0

On Mon, 5 May 1997, Pierre Phaneuf wrote:

> On Sun, 4 May 1997, Mike A. Harris wrote:
> 
> > Since OD is being distributed on the net now, I think that a
> > slightly different "package" format might be more appropriate.
> > Since not everyone wants/needs everything that is in OD, I think
> > it might be beneficial to create "packages" such like Slackware
> > does, or other distributions of Linux.  This way one could
> > download:
> 
> An excellent idea! I think we should use the RPM system, it has already
> proven to be portable (there is versions for Amiga and Atari, among
> others, not only on Un*x, but on other OSes too) and is very good! And
> using the rpmlib, you can make applications that has RPM capabilities
> (i.e., a menued package manager)...

Well, RPM is only "theoretically" the way to go.  I have NOT been
able to get it running on my Slackware system despite several
mailing list postings to different lists and newsgroups including
this one, as well as over 12 hours of reading HOWTO's,
FAQ's, fiddling, downloading, redownloading, re-redownloading,
posting to lists, ftpsearching, compiling, deleting, recompiling,
redeleting, redownloading, installing, SIGSEGVing, and finally
permanently giving up.

IMHO RPM is useless until it meets the following (for non-redhat 
systems): 

1) Comes archived in TAR.GZ format (UNIX) or ZIP format (DOS)
2) Comes in both BINARY *AND* source distributions for various
   OS's ALSO in both TAR.GZ format and ZIP format.
3) The archive expands the first time that you detar it.
4) NO COMPILATION IS NECESSARY at ALL with the binary
   distributions.
5) All required libs are either statically linked, or come with
   the install pre-compiled.

I have had countless headaches with RPM on Slackware, and STILL
can't use it.  Any help that people have graciously offered,
results in "This version of RPM not supported" being reported by
RPM, or some other such error that prevents installation.  Also,
the RPM files were not very easy to find either.  They were in
the dir:

ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/redhat-4.1/i386/RedHat/instimage/usr/bin

Then after dl'ing the file, I ran it as the howto said, and I got
a message saying that this RPM was incompatible with the rpm file
I was trying to install, among various other errors.  I had to
search the net for 10 years to find rpm2cpio which was out of
date as well, and then had to download zlib which needed to be
compiled, which wouldn't compile, etc......

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Delete all rpm related files and archives and curse a lot!

Now, in all fairness, I have heard good things about RPM, and DO
still want to use it, however SOMETHING definately needs to be
done about it's distribution and installation!  I mean after all,
it is an installation program without an installation program!
EXCEPT if you are a RedHat user!  BLAH!!!!!

Please read this as a cry for help to the RPM gods that be.

Please feel free to direct flames me via email, or to /dev/null,
and please not to the list.  I can take it, but I'm sure others
don't want to read it.


Mike A. Harris        |             http://blackwidow.saultc.on.ca/~mharris
Computer Consultant   |                  Coming soon: dynamic-IP-freedom...
My dynamic address: http://blackwidow.saultc.on.ca/~mharris/ip-address.html
Email: mharris at blackwidow.saultc.on.ca  <-- Spam proof address

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