You're both correct. The RPM format is a modified CPIO archive, containing a variety of sources and patches, and a spec file.
The sources and patches are often compressed, and that cpmpression is often done with GNU tar and GNU zip. If you want to learn how to package (its simple to undertsand for anyone who compiles their own software, and furthermore only takes a couple of minutes for any GNU autoconf / automake based app) check out: http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-rpm1/ Mike On Mon, 2002-09-23 at 21:48, Steve Kowalik wrote: > At 7:38 pm, Monday, September 23 2002, Matthew Hannigan mumbled: > > rpm is a superset of tar, so why don't you > > just convert your tar to rpm? > > > No, an rpm is a hacked cpio archive. > > > I think alien will do that .. or most of it. > > > > http://kitenet.net/programs/alien/ > > > Alien can certain go back and forth between a slackware package, a .deb, or > .rpm, but the latter two require dpkg and rpm installed, respectively. > > -- > Steve > -- > SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ > More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug -- ____________________________________________________________________________ Mike MacCana Support Consultant RHCE, MCSE, MCP+I Cybersource: Providing Quality IT Professional Services for 11 Years Specialists in Unix/Linux, TCP/IP and Web Application Development Level 9, 140 Queen St, Melbourne. Ph : 03 9642 5997 Fax: 03 9642 5998 -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group - http://slug.org.au/ More Info: http://lists.slug.org.au/listinfo/slug
