Re: Patch to add install action to packages:

[David Douthitt]

Phil D'Amore wrote:
> I used RPM as an example here, but all three supported package managers
> *should* work.  You can actually use more than one package manager at
> once, since each keeps its own to-be-installed list.  If folks could
> test the Debian and Sun parts of this, it'd be greatly appreciated, as I
> don't really have the facilities to do so ;).  Most of the code for this
> is package manager agnostic, except for the part that decides which
> variable to read for the install command (RPMInstallCommand,
> DPKGInstallCommand, SUNInstallCommand), so I'm expecting it will Just
> Work (tm).

I realize that I'm not up to speed on the packages section and its 
support - but there are more than three package formats.

Beyond the three listed above, I can think of several:

* HP-UX software depots
* FreeBSD packages
* Slackware packages

And this doesn't account for alternative installation programs, although 
that may not be relevant - RPMInstall command could be set to "apt-get 
install" for instance.

However, I find the names "RPMInstallCommand" et al to be just ghastly. 
 What if RPM is phased out and replaced with the new name 
FooBarPackageMgr?  What if someone installs RPM on a SUN machine?  What 
if someone installs RPM onto Debian and uses it?  More importantly, how 
are you EVER going to be able to get ALL package managers represented?

The commands ought to be package manager neutral, should they not?

--
David Douthitt
UNIX System Administrator
Linux+, LPIC-1, RHCE
HP-UX, Unixware, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD
Member: ACM, USENIX/SAGE