On Wed, 28 Feb 2007 23:33:51 +0530, Devdas Bhagat
<devdas-B/gC27/pXbteH41UXmfQsti2O/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said:
> On 28/02/07 10:05 -0600, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
snip>
>> chmod, ar and tar. rpm's need a special tool. Now, why is this
>> important at all? Well, think of a classified environment, where
>> you do not want to rely on the packaged tool to help you with
>> forensics; but you have a trusted solaris box.
>>
> A unix system without cpio? RPM is essentially cpio with a specified
> header format.
Actually, no: it is a modified cpio. The implementation is
pretty close, but it has some behaviors which are more to RPM's
liking. If you take a plain old cpio from Solaris/Aix/HPUX et al
you'll find that you can't really inspect/create rpm files.
Which is why we have rpm2cpio package, it converts the rpm to
standard cpio format. If it was a plain old cpio, you would not need
rpm2cpio.
>>
>> 4) Debian packages may run binaries at install and un-install
>> times. I am not sure if this is a major plus.
> RPMS can run binaries from pre and post install sections. This is
> not a major plus, and in some environments can be a major minus.
Well, not if you wanted to do a preinst, and the binary you
want to run is inside the package. See, the package has not been
unpacked yet, just hte spec file is available -- or the debian
maintainer scripts.
So, debian's preinst can be a binary program, as well as a
postrm -- but the rpm spec file can't do that, since the binary it
could refer to would not be available.
It is not a major issue, and Debian specifically prohibits it
in policy; but it is a technical difference.
manoj
--
If you think the system is working, ask someone who's waiting for a
prompt.
Manoj Srivastava <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://www.golden-gryphon.com/>
1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B 924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C
--
http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
