In a message dated: Tue, 14 Nov 2000 15:38:30 EST
Benjamin Scott said:
>On Fri, 10 Nov 2000, Derek Martin wrote:
>>> One of the things I love about Red Hat Linux over Microsoft Windows is how
>>> *easy* it is to install a new package. "rpm -i foo" and *I'M DONE*.
>>
>> On the other hand, this method isn't all that flexible. If you're
>> installing something to be shared, for example, you can't control WHERE it
>> gets installed.
>
> Well, remember, the whole idea of package management is centralized control.
>
>The idea is that you install the RPM on a "master" system, and then share the
>/usr filesystem to other systems.
Why would I want to NFS mount my /usr partition? That's asking for trouble,
especially when you consider that X is installed under /usr!
RPM is designed with the misinformed notion that the user is installing to
*their* desktop system, *NOT* a centralized NFS server. If it were truly
designed for centralized installation, then --prefix and --relocate would work
on *every* pacakge. It doesn't, because RPM wasn't designed with the concept
of an NFS server in mind.
> If you prefer, you can use multiple RPM databases. Create a separate RPM DB
>just for use for shared packages. Use --root and/or --dbpath to select that
>database when installing packages to the shared location. This has the
>advantage of keeping the "shared" stuff septate from the "local" stuff present
>on the host system. This would be particularly useful if your are using
>Network Attached Storage -- you could do the installs from any system, but
>keep the same RPM database throughout.
Yes, but how do I accomplish this if my NAS is exporting the path /nfs
to the world and I want to install all "centrally admin'ed pkgs" down that
path rather than /usr? It won't work. RPM is not well designed with large
scale networks in mind. This isn't a problem specific to RPM either, Debian
has the same problem, as does Windows. The problem is that those designing
installation utilities have never been a sysadmin and have no clue about the
things that go on in a real production environment.
Didn't we already kill this horse 2 weeks ago?
--
Seeya,
Paul
----
I'm in shape, my shape just happens to be pear!
If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right!
**********************************************************
To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to
[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the following text in the
*body* (*not* the subject line) of the letter:
unsubscribe gnhlug
**********************************************************
