> > * Must support source packages. (With all > dependency info, > > allowing an install or upgrade via source). > > I don't think this a feature of the package manager > so much as a build manager. > > However, I don't think the current package format is > suited to this at > the moment, but I could be wrong.
I don't see why with a little standardizing of how one did it and suitable tool support, it would be any harder to add any needed metadata to provide the same functionality out of source in an SVR4 pkg based package than it is out of an SRPM or the like. In combination with for instance spec files and pkgbuild, I think that would at least be handy for such things as GUI toolkit demo/familiarization code, since it might serve to encapsulate, parameterize, standardize, or otherwise simplify the use of the build framework. I think that if they were made that accessible, it would be helpful to have a lot more working educational sample code in source form. And depending on the discipline of how things were broken into packages and what metadata was recorded, source packages might eventually provide boundaries and assistance for more easily recompiling parts of OpenSolaris without having to necessarily recompile everything. In other words, it's not impossible that eventually their widespread adoption might not pay for itself - especially if the relationships between various ARC related putbacks and contracts (i.e. change dependencies) could somehow be captured in the source packages (starting at some then current build as the epoch rather than going back forever, but recording all active documented dependencies on things-as-they-are). Indeed, I wonder if any of the source management tools have, or might benefit by having, some notion of a structure to their repositories and histories that might not be connectable to the concept of source packages short of the level of an entire product. This message posted from opensolaris.org _______________________________________________ opensolaris-discuss mailing list [email protected]
