William Schumann wrote: > Stephen Hahn wrote: >> * Dave Miner <Dave.Miner at Sun.COM> [2008-03-06 22:12]: >> >>> Stephen Hahn wrote: >>> >>>> Watching this discussion proceed, I now feel that this file should >>>> either be removed and a small C API be written to query the packaging >>>> metadata (which has all the appropriate information in the convention >>>> that the product will use to describe what's installed). I have not >>>> seen nearly enough description of what questions are being asked that >>>> this file/interface is supposed to answer, and what entities are >>>> asking these questions and under what circumstances. >>>> >>> There was some fairly cryptic stuff in the initial mail William sent, >>> but it basically boils down to the installation and software >>> management utilities being able to identify and present to the user >>> what's installed in the disks and partitions attached to the system. >>> >> >> That would explain a file with a single text string (like "SunOS 5.x, >> Distro xxxx, i86pc"). A general name-value store is excessive; as a >> bonus, the library API would to a single function. >> > The name-value store assured that it could be parsed, and made clear how > a release was identified, field-for-field. > If you have it as a single string in a file, it would have to conform to > a syntax so the release number could be extracted. > I have no problem with representing it as a single string, as long as it > did not degenerate to something that could not easily be parsed by a > program. >
The point is that the need to parse it should no longer exist, as all we'd be after is a displayable name for users. From the tools point of view, package versions are what matter. Dave
