On Sun, 21 Nov 1999, Denis Havlik wrote:
> :>You still gotta drive to install that, (always buged me to try and find
> :>that many d**med floppys) We'll be look at a better interface for upgrades
> :>than manual frubing your way thru rpm -F *.rpm soon, it does work but it's
> :>not quite for the faint of heart. Trying it via rpm -U is even more time
> :>consumeing... Have a try at rpm -F, and we'd love input on how you'd like
> :>to see it improved
>
> Hi
>
> I am sorry to tell you that i disagree, but this method of "upgrading"
> will only "update" those packages which are allready installed. Therefore,
This is what an "upgrade" does as i explained, the installer was modified
to select the "gnome" and "kde" sections of comps (redhat did these, we
left them as it worked great for gnome, and we've always had kde)
> in most cases you will not end-up with thruly "upgraded" system. In some
> cases your system may actually end-up really screwed. Try "converting"
> Suse- based system to Mandrake with "rpm -F *", and god may help you...
You can't upgrade a suse system to Mandrake via "upgrade" as it stands
anyway with the newt installer. I haven't heard any reports of how
anaconda or DrakX do when trying this, i wouldn't expect it to work either
> My sugestion would be to alter the "rpm" a bit in order to be able to say
> "these packages are essential, so install them at any cost". Then the
> "vendor" has to choose a set of packages which are "essential" and flag
> them so. In this way, a fictive:
This is the job of the installer really, and i'm sure i've seen similar
discussions on redhat lists
> rpm --system_upgrade "DISTRO" DIRECTORY/*
>
> will do something like:
>
> 1) find packages which are flagged essential for "DISTRO"
> distribution
> 2) Install them, even if has to use "force", "oldpackage" or whatever.
> 3) "freshen" the rest of the packages
>
> or
>
> 1) "freshen" all the packages
> 2) find out if there are some "essencial" packages left out and install
> them even if it has to use "force"...
>
> Now, the best way to "flag" the package "essential for Mandrake 6.1" would
> be to have a flag saying so in the rpm package (somewhat similar to
> "dependencies" stuff) As a nice side-effect, one could flag packages
> "essencial for kde 1.2", or "essencial for gnome x.y" or so...
>
> then, installing "gnome" would be a breeze again:
>
> rpm --system_upgrade "Gnome 6.1" RPM_DIR/*
>
> would do the trick. If this sounds like having a "mega-package", well in a
> way it is. However, one should consult RedHat - having incompatible
> versions of "rpm" would be awfull. (anybody cares to forward this letter
> to RH-development?)
>
> "Second best" solution would be a list of "essential" packages in an ASCII
> file. that way it would be relatively easy to find out which packages MUST
> be installed, and take care they really do get installed.
comps(redhat), compss(us, ok really it's in
usr/bin/perl-install/install2.pm, but they should always be the same IIRC)
> WDYT?
> Denis
> -----------------------------------------------------------
> Denis Havlik ||| http://www.ap.univie.ac.at/users/havlik
> (@ @) [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> ---------oOO--(_)--OOo-------------------------------------
>
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MandrakeSoft http://www.mandrakesoft.com/
--Axalon
