Date: Tue, 9 Jul 2002 16:50:14 +0200 From: Neil Blakey-Milner <nbm@mithrandr.moria.org> To: Cy Schubert - CITS Open Systems Group <Cy.Schubert@uumail.gov.bc.ca> Cc: arch@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Learning from Debian (Was: Re: Package system flaws?) Message-ID: <20020709145013.GA61758@mithrandr.moria.org> In-Reply-To: <200207091343.g69DhOfP080432@cwsys.cwsent.com> References: <xzp65zpl0tf.fsf@flood.ping.uio.no> <200207091343.g69DhOfP080432@cwsys.cwsent.com>
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[ CC's trimmed - I hope nobody minds (they won't get my apology anyway
if they do, I suppose) ]
On Tue 2002-07-09 (06:43), Cy Schubert - CITS Open Systems Group wrote:
> In message <xzp65zpl0tf.fsf@flood.ping.uio.no>, Dag-Erling Smorgrav
> writes:
> > Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> writes:
> > > If you're sensible about the encoding, the metadata doesn't have to be
> > > at the beginning of the media.
> >
> > Yes, it does, to allow installation from non-rewindable streams.
>
> IMO, this is extremely important.
The Debian dpkg format uses 'ar' to put together three files -
debian-binary, control.tar.gz, and data.tar.gz.
debian-binary is checked so that it is known that it is at least working
with a debian package. The file itself contains a version number ('2.0'
from a randomly chosen one).
control.tar.gz contains a few files. preinst and postinst resemble our
+INSTALL files, and the same with prerm and postrm and our +DEINSTALL.
conffiles contains the configuration files in the package (to protect
them), and control contains most of the metadata:
Package: dpkg
Version: 1.10.2
Section: base
Priority: required
Architecture: i386
Essential: yes
Pre-Depends: dselect, libc6 (>= 2.2.4-4)
Conflicts: sysvinit (<< 2.82-1), dpkg-iasearch, dpkg-static, dpkg-dev
(<< 1.9)
Replaces: dpkg-doc-ja, dpkg-static, manpages-de (<= 0.4-3)
Installed-Size: 3272
Origin: debian
Maintainer: Dpkg Development <debian-dpkg@lists.debian.org>
Bugs: debbugs://bugs.debian.org
Description: Package maintenance system for Debian
data.tar.gz contains a root prefixed tar file with all the files:
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 Jul 5 05:26 2002 ./
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 Jul 5 05:26 2002 ./usr/
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 Jul 5 05:26 2002 ./usr/share/
drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 Jul 5 05:26 2002 ./usr/share/doc/
The debian "metadata" file used by apt and similar upgrade programs
contains a summary of the "control" file for all the packages contained
there, thus including all depends, conflicts, install size, and so
forth, with relative versions if necessary.
Are there any disadvantages with the way the Debian people have done it?
And what can we learn from them?
Neil
--
Neil Blakey-Milner
nbm@mithrandr.moria.org
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