[plug] rpm's for diff platforms?

[bwarff]

> 
> So a source rpm will compile and install from scratch for me will it?
> I gather it will still want me to bring down the dependencies for the
> source as well.. so the theory is that non-source rpm's may not link
> to my lib's (dependencies) because my distro has them in different
> places?
> Does that mean that if I bring down a different distro's rpm of say
> "libbonoboui" it may install it even though my this distro may already
> have it, just that its stored somewhere else?
> 
> Sounds a little weak to me.. I guess thats why they call it dependence-hell :-P

its not quite like that .. each 'package manager' has its own way of keeping
track of dependancies, so aslong as you stick to 'rpm' it wont be as bad as
you just described.. cause rpm can find other installed rpm's ... that problem would show up
if you use 'dpkg' (the debian) packages.. because they dont know about the rpm
database...also source programs look for dependancies via /usr/include and /usr/lib ...  but i digress.

its really not that hard to use source packages themselves, and with a bit 
of care, you can do so safely, without damaging the integrity of your 
distribution and its package system.

if a distro is being 'nice' it will place all its packages in the /usr
prefix, and it wont touch the /usr/local prefix (which is your playground).

thusly you can download a src tarball (foo.tar.gz rather than foo.rpm)
and install it manually to /usr/local ... and try it out, without upsetting
anything.. 

most source packages come with the gnu autotools, so to do as i described is as follows.

tar zxvf foo.tar.gz
cd foo
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make
make install.

... after this has happened .. you may be lucky and get a menu entry on your desktop automagically,
or you may have to do a bit of looking in /usr/local/bin to find the new program.....
but either way the Suse rpm system should continue to work as expected.

dependancy hell is something quite tedious, but largely unavoidable - if you can imagine 
how the dependancies start to build up as you install layer upon layer of libraries,
then you can imagine that changing one of the core libraries (that everything else relies upon)
involves also then upgrading all the stuff that built upon that lib.. and so on and so forth.


Rod.


> 
> -- 
> Nothing dies faster than a new idea in a closed mind.
> _______________________________________________
> PLUG discussion list: plug at plug.linux.org.au
> http://mail.plug.linux.org.au/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/plug
> Committee e-mail: committee at plug.linux.org.au