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Date:      Tue, 30 Dec 2003 10:59:21 +1030
From:      Malcolm Kay <malcolm.kay@internode.on.net>
To:        Frederick Thomas <nikita_the_jew@yahoo.com>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: trouble installing rpm-4.0.4.tar.gz
Message-ID:  <200312301059.21056.malcolm.kay@internode.on.net>
In-Reply-To: <20031229174118.25423.qmail@web60206.mail.yahoo.com>
References:  <20031229174118.25423.qmail@web60206.mail.yahoo.com>

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On Tue, 30 Dec 2003 04:11, Frederick Thomas wrote:
> shalom,
>       I have a question which I hope that you can help me with. I just
> tried to intstall rpm-4.0.4.tar.gz on my system[freebsd 4.8] and have n=
ot
> been able to get it to ./configure let alone make. Is there a special d=
ir,
> ( /usr/compat/linux?), or dependencies that are required to compile the
> tarball? My main reason for trying top install a package manager is tha=
t
> I've had problems with gmetadom[lastest] and various other tarballs wit=
h
> limited success. I am attempting to teach myself about unix and could j=
ust
> use a pointer in the right direction. Thank you for your time...
>

I think you may be confused about RPMs, FreeBSD packages and ports.

RPMs are a species of package used with some Linux distributions. The=20
actual package has a .rpm suffix and (normally) requires the Linux utilit=
y
'rpm' for creation, installation and management.

FreeBSD packages have ann suffix of the form .tgz and are instaelled, and=
=20
managed with a number of utilities installed by default with the FBSD=20
installation. These are pkg_add, pkg_delete, and generally pkg_*. These=20
contain precompiled binaries and support files.

Ports in the FreeBSD system are essentually a set of Makefile driven
algorithms for compiling utilities and applications from source; and=20
installing the resultant binaries and support files in the (mostly) corre=
ct=20
place in the system file hierarchy. Often the the algorithms first patch =
the=20
source to make it better suited to the operating system or to fix bugs in=
 the
original. The source distributions may be in many different formats, but
archives with the suffix .tar.gz are quite common.

(Both ports and packages get registered in /var/db/pkg which assists in
clean deletion of utilities and applictions)

I believe this means that installing rpm is not useful in achieving your=20
ultimate goal. I would guess gmetadom-0.2.1.tar.gz is the latest distribu=
tion
you are refering to. Doing it the hard way you take this file and explode=
 it=20
with:
# tar zxf gmetadom-0.2.1.tar.gz
and read and try to digest the instructions that are likely to be contain=
ed
for compiling and installing the software. This is the generic approach -=
-=20
hopefully it works on any unix like system.

The better way is to download the latest port algorithm from www.freebsd.=
org,
install it in /usr/ports/textproc, and then=20
# cd /usr/ports/textproc/gmetacom
# make install
But you might first have a look to see if you have gmetacom in your ports
(/usr/ports/textproc/gmetacom) and if so check the version which you can =
find
in /usr/ports/textproc/gmetacom/Makefile. If this is the version you are =
looking for
then you don't need to install the port algorithm; just go ahead with the=
=20
'make install'.

And assuming you have an internet connection it might all happen.

Malcolm Kay




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