begin Paul Jakma quotation:
> that said, apt is just a front-end right? and doesn't it now support
> RPMs? apt on redhat systems would be nice...
Connectiva (in Brazil) has developed a variant form of apt that can deal
with RPMs. However, in the process of developing this, they found that
the problem is much deeper: There are some management features built
into the Debian packaging system that have nothing similar in RPM
architecture. (To a limited degree, the reverse is also true. See:
http://www.kitenet.net/~joey/pkg-comp/) More important, RPM packages
generally are badly lacking in any equivalent to the Debian Policy
guidelines, which are the _real_ reason why Debian has superior
upgradeability and maintainability. Also, Debian packages tend to have
much finer granularity (e.g., development libs are in separate packages
from runtime ones), making dependency management less complex.
Connectiva has attempted to partially remedy this through large-scale
revisions to _its_ set of RPMs. Of course, you benefit from that work
only if you use _its_ RPMs, and nobody else's.
Here's a good all-around analysis of the packaging issue (which makes
clear why just kludging apt to "install RPMs" doesn't solve the problem:
http://www.advogato.org/article/169.html
--
Cheers, Before enlightenment, caffeine.
Rick Moen After enlightenment, caffeine.
rick at linuxmafia.com
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