Lenz Grimmer wrote:

Hi,

On Tue, 2 Mar 1999, Paul W. Abrahams wrote:

...

...

YaST's capability of unpacking .tgz-Archives is a leftover from ancient times, when Software Packages where gzipped tar Archives (like Slackware has). These Packages contained the whole directory structure and binaries as well as pre- and postinstall scripts. It was never intended to be used for _source_-Packages. This would be a hard job, since every source package requires different rules on how to make a binary of it and has a different directory structure...

I agree with everything you say. But I still can see how Yast could do the job, in a different way than happens with the current .tgz unpacking facility:

1. It could keep an inventory of .tgz files and unpack them to a standard location (*not* the root directory :=)),

Well, but that would require, that YaST can determine between a binary and a source .tgz. How should it do so?

Actually, it doesn't matter! Maybe an inventory of .tgz files isn't even needed, since they are only used as the data source for the unpacking process. Once they've been unpacked, the only reason to keep them at all is for archiving purpose. But they still ought to be in a standard location.

...

2. It could note the state of the system (as instmon does), then provide the user with a subshell to compile and install the package according to the package's own procedures, then determine the state of the system (again, as instmon does) and record it for purposes of uninstallation.

I see this as truly in the spirit of the function that Yast is intended to perform: providing centralized control and inventory of the facilities available in one's system.

This sounds really neat, indeed. But if it would be so easy, we would not need so many people for packaging software for our distribution...

I just ran across a situation where I *almost* needed just this facility. I tried to run the xcdroast program, but it wouldn't run because it needed an updated tcl/tk and tix library. Fortunately you had those on the web site. But what if you didn't? The suggestion in the xcdroast package is to uninstall the existing tcl/tk and replace them with new ones obtained in .tgz form from an ftp site they specify. But simply uninstalling them without telling Yast that new versions are there would probably mess up all kinds of dependencies that Yast tracks.

I've forwarded your request to feedback@suse.de anyway.

Best wishes,

LenZ

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