Danny Angus wrote:
(...)
> The solution M$ have delivered appears to simply be a global registry
> (the Global Assembly Cache), but it is well thought out in respect to
> M$ probelm and is capable of maintaining multiple versions of the
> same Assemblies (think jars) and using the correct one, either the
> newest or a specified version. I haven't investigated it too deeply
> but I have a feeling that where two bits of the same application
> depend on different versions of the same assembly this is taken care
> of properly too. From what I can see it relies heavily on code
> signing to deliver secure name spaces and version identification, and
> prevent unintentional namespace conflicts. Thus anyone can download
> and install multiple versions (or your application installer can do
> it) where necessary, and you only need to install each required
> Assembly-version once per machine.

I think "per machine" things belong to the configuration management and system administration concerns, and should be handled at this level.

IMO, the approach of jpackage.org, making java rpms for linux and setting a repository of libraries(jars) under /usr/share/java, with a judicious use of symbolic links (much in the same way that .so files are managed under linux) offers a clean way to avoid duplication , while leaving decision power on what gets installed where, how and when to the sysadmin.

Again IMO, any automated solution should not intrude into the ability of the sysadmin to control what is in her machine.

Microsoft has always handled this problem in the wrong way ,assuming that an automated installer knows better than the system administrator and doing things without logging or asking first.

Please, (generic broadcasted plea, not pointing to anyone in particular) make sure that any java solution to this problem respects the needs of systema administrators WRT configuration management and global auditing of changes in their (suposedly) managed systems.




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