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Message-ID: <004901c00c23$a57c7680$f7c723cb@lifelesswks>
From: "Robert Collins" <robert DOT collins AT itdomain DOT com DOT au>
To: "David Starks-Browning" <starksb AT ebi DOT ac DOT uk>,
        <cygwin-apps AT sources DOT redhat DOT com>
References: <E3547IPM2AUAP*@MHS> <5473-Tue22Aug2000102154+0100-starksb AT ebi DOT ac DOT uk>
Subject: Re: Collection of new/updated packages available for testing (rpm)
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2000 20:27:58 +1000
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As I see it rpms (or the debian equivalent) offer three key improvements
over DJ's setup.exe and any similar tar based solution:
* pre-post install/uninstall scripts (i.e. check if you have /etc/services,
if not install it, if you do call sed and edit it rather than replacing
it...)
* dependancy tracking. Each RPM
* uninstall functionality (the database knows what was installed, what
uninstalling it will break, what to do to uninstall item x).

Note: You have to bootstrap your environment to the point you can _use_ rpm
style tools. DJ's setup.exe is essential to do that, but the possibility
exists to only distribute enough binary files in .tar.gz format to run rpm,
and distribute everything beyond that as rpm. then setup.exe can untar those
core files, and call rpm to do the rest. AFAIK that is what the redhat linux
installer does - bootstraps without rpm, and then runs rpm for
__everything__ else.

Rob

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Starks-Browning" <starksb AT ebi DOT ac DOT uk>
To: <cygwin-apps AT sources DOT redhat DOT com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2000 7:21 PM
Subject: Collection of new/updated packages available for testing (rpm)

.....

> > All those facs faciliate the process of maintaining software. This makes
rpm the
> > choice of many linux-dists like redhat, mandrake, suse and others.
>
> How is this useful to Cygwin?  Is it better than, say, DJ's setup.exe?
>
> I've never used rpm myself, so I'm probably just ignorant of its magic.
>
> Regards,
> David
>
>