Rpkg questions

ruby-talk
#1

first of all, rpkg == mana from heaven!!!

I was thinking about the package manager problem yesterday, and I had
a few questions / ideas:

  • What is the status of rpkg? How old is it, how actively is it being
    developed?

  • When I was bouncing ideas around, I thought that some kind of
    integration with RAA would be an important feature for such a utility.
    Perhaps the RAA could fill out the fields of an entry from an
    uploaded rpt, and rpkg could query RAA for packages?

It is very exciting to see holes in the process of being filled, nice
work!

~ Patrick

#2

first of all, rpkg == mana from heaven!!!

I was thinking about the package manager problem yesterday, and I had
a few questions / ideas:

  • What is the status of rpkg?

The one online (http://www.allruby.com/rpkg) works. I’m not
developing it anymore, only doing bugfixes.

As for the one I’m rewriting: the fetch/build/pack/unpack operations
work (many niceties have been added like cvs integration and automatic
building); the database management code has not been rewritten yet;
I’m working on the dependency handling code.

How old is it,

[ANN] rpkg 0.1 (long)
ruby-talk:30749
10 Jan 2002

how actively is it being developed?

The only actively developed ruby project in a busy life. :slight_smile:

  • When I was bouncing ideas around, I thought that some kind of
    integration with RAA would be an important feature for such a utility.
    Perhaps the RAA could fill out the fields of an entry from an
    uploaded rpt, and rpkg could query RAA for packages?

The biggest priority is a flat database of available packages that can
be downloaded/rsynced, then queried offline, like Debian’s.

I don’t plan integrating rpkg with the current RAA, I’m afraid that
would be kludgy at best. As an online service (for when the flat
database part will be in place) I’m considering LDAP.

It is very exciting to see holes in the process of being filled, nice
work!

:slight_smile:

Massimiliano

···

On Thu, Sep 05, 2002 at 07:05:29AM +0900, Patrick May wrote:

#3

Massimiliano Mirra list@NOSPAMchromatic-harp.com wrote in message news:20020905160729.A5055@ws10.rcost-p.unisannio.it…

[thx for the information]

how actively is it being developed?

The only actively developed ruby project in a busy life. :slight_smile:

don’t we all have this problem. Still, busy-ness is good :slight_smile:

  • When I was bouncing ideas around, I thought that some kind of
    integration with RAA would be an important feature for such a utility.
    Perhaps the RAA could fill out the fields of an entry from an
    uploaded rpt, and rpkg could query RAA for packages?

The biggest priority is a flat database of available packages that can
be downloaded/rsynced, then queried offline, like Debian’s.

I don’t plan integrating rpkg with the current RAA, I’m afraid that
would be kludgy at best. As an online service (for when the flat
database part will be in place) I’m considering LDAP.

What if there was an option to upload a package to RAA, instead of
using rpkg to download from RAA? For example:

[~]# rpkg --upload-raa narf.package
Extracting information from package…
Project Name: Narf
Version: alpha
Status: alpha
Owner: Patrick May
Owner’s Email: patrick-may@monmouth.com
Category: Lib/WWW
Homepage: http://narf-lib.sourceforge.net
Download: http://sourceforge.net/projects/narf-lib
Description: NARF is an attempt to create ruby web libraries
that escape the weighty thud that one usually
associates with web frameworks. We want to build a
variety of solutions to help with every layer of
building web applications, from the ground (cgi) up
(to design patterns)

Please enter RAA pass phrase: *********
Updating information…
…Done
[~]#

Would it be difficult to add this meta data to rpkg? I’m sure much of
it is there in some form or another. Of course, this work should be
done by those who actually want the feature :slight_smile:

Since RAA (or Google, but that’s a different story) is the main
destination for one browsing for packages, I think it is important for
a package system to make it easy to update that information. This
kind of feature could make it easier to ‘ease’ into a different
packaging system.

~ Patrick

#4

What if there was an option to upload a package to RAA, instead of
using rpkg to download from RAA? For example:

[~]# rpkg --upload-raa narf.package
Extracting information from package…
Project Name: Narf
Version: alpha
Status: alpha
[…]
Would it be difficult to add this meta data to rpkg? I’m sure much of
it is there in some form or another.

Should be pretty easy.

Since RAA (or Google, but that’s a different story) is the main
destination for one browsing for packages, I think it is important for
a package system to make it easy to update that information. This
kind of feature could make it easier to ‘ease’ into a different
packaging system.

Another choice could be to have a `news feed’ from the rpkg repository
that notifies the RAA of package additions and gives it the necessary
link, owner, description, … information. That way the rpkg tool
wouldn’t bloat and the uploader wouldn’t have to remember to update
two repositories.

Massimiliano

···

On Sat, Sep 07, 2002 at 03:52:05AM +0900, Patrick May wrote: