commenting on previous merged emails: > Yes, there are indeed Linux package managers. They don't get beyond the > "replace the entire package" level. THey have no concept of individual > fixes and their interactions.
> Are they as powerful as SMP? No, but they fill a similar niche. They are more powerful than SMP (and to me scary). They run scripts as root and can do anything to your system... SMP is mostly contained, it's going to replace some modules. One thought I had a long time ago on SMP was that a slightly different design of SMP would only forward build the target libraries never save them and recopy them back from the saved version (for restore). Instead, this alternate would keep a pile of MODs, a dependency database, and a local configuration database. A new PTF or function would add MODs and dependencies. APPLY and RESTORE would adjust the local configuration database to say what modules and versions the target libraries would contain. Then a SMP build process would build or rebuild the targets needing changes from the current configuration to the new desired configuration. So any PTF could be removed, at least as long as the pile of MODs still contained the older MODs needed. Since this would require keeping may previous levels of modules and more processing I can see why this wasn't likely possible back when disks were smaller and more expensive and processors slower. As well, the real SMP back then included the old LMOD in it's links so "unknown to SMP" CSECTs didn't get lost. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
