On Mon, 25 Jun 2001 at 06:22, Edwin Casimero wrote:
> I still say TAR files are the best. (for MySQL, Apache and PHP) Use
> the source Luke! (I know, RPMers will get angry again)
I'm not an "RPMer" (I use Debian, and I _LOVE_ apt/dpkg). I'm not angry.
But I have some comments for this one.
I don't know if source RPMs have changed that much since they were since
"src.rpm" and not "spm" files, but AFAIK the only difference of a source
RPM and a tarball is that the source RPM comes with a SPEC file that
predefines how the RPMs are to be built.
Because of the inclusion of the SPEC file (and possibly even some
patches), I think source RPMs are better than plain tarballs. Why?
First this allows you to create custom-built RPMs as customized as you
could customize your tarball, and still be prevent messing up dependencies
and everything else that one can benefit from using a package management
system.
Second this allows a user, particularly someone in the "learning stage"
(and shouldn't we all be continuously be in that stage?) to discover how
the package maintainer builds the distribution's copy of that program.
There are nuances to every distribution, and if there's one way to learn
this, it's through how the packages are built.
For those interested, the Debian package management system (dpkg) also
comes with "source packages". Furthermore, an apt-src source can be set up
so that one can "apt-get source <package>" instead of "apt-get <package>".
All this needs is an appropriate apt-src to be defined in the
/etc/apt/sources.list file.
Debian sources come in three files. First is the original tarball. Second
is a dsc file that comes with descriptive information on the package that
will subsequently be built into the package for the package manager to be
able to extract this information. Third is a diff file that basically
creates a debian subdirectory with scripts that create the customized
debian file and do various checks to make sure a package conforms to
Debian's standard.
I have yet to learn Debian's package management system, particularly the
aid that the debhelper utilities provide. I find that the SPEC file
approach is a little more understandable, though. Somehow to be that seems
a little more straightforward. I do not know if learning debhelper,
debconf, and some other package management creation utilities for Debian
will change my mind about this. Let's wait and see. :)
--> Jijo
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