Let we keep terms you just introduced. 1. Personal software 2. Delegated software
I meant "Delegated software" in general when use term "Multiple Instances". About instances of packages. If installations does not incompatible with each other, does not concurently use same resources, it should be OK otherwise certain isolation level is nessesary and zones gives processes, files and, most imortant for this case, software database isolation. And as I understand zones were introduced for this reason at least partially. If different versions of compilers are not incompatible why not to put them into different packages and install separately? We should think about package not as naming convention (otherwise we may have package "compiler" or even "software") but as delivery vehicle which we need to distribute and maintain software. In this term if different versions of same C-compiler from same Producer can be delivered independenty and can be independently maintained why put them into single vehicle to deliver - this will cause a lot of problems instantely. Same as two different persons sharing one car. If different versions of compiler is compatible - they should be in different packages. Of course we can introduce some concept of "Compatible Versions" etc, but ultimately it will be different packages with same name which cause confusion and complication only. If two colpiler incompatible - then they should not be installed in the same place, they should be isolated from each other and packaging should prevent inconsistancy - this is what packaging is for and why dependancy is introduced. I don't see how we can make incompatible packages to work compatible. However, it is developers who ultimately should deside is it compatible or not or how to make them compatible if this is real case when multiple versions of compilers need to work non isolated from each other. Resources they concurently use may be different - it may be same configuration file name or it may be special partition or device - anything and we, as an Install, can not foreknow this and ultimately only developers who making software know this. As Install we can tell them - if your software incompatible with something else let us know this way and we make sure that it will not be installed in such cases. Making them compatible in each cases also task for developers not for Install - use different configuration file names or detect partitions etc... Thanks, Vassili. This message posted from opensolaris.org
