From: Tony Nugent (tony@growzone.com.au)
Date: Wed 08 Dec 1999 - 19:30:48 IST
On Wed Dec 08 1999 at 08:10, "Evan G. Wolenzik" wrote:
> > I'm just wondering if anyone has built an rpm for 1.4.1 to go into a
> > redhat 6.1 system. If so, then please let me know where I can get a
> > copy of them! Many thanks.
>
> Please don't take this as an insult, but why is it that you Red Hat people
> are so dependent upon RPMs? It's easy enough to compile 1.4.1 on your own,
> and then you get the options that YOU want, not someone else's ideas. It
> should only take ~ 10 - 15 minutes. I'd say it's worth the wait. :)
Several reasons...
- with an rpm, all the files go into the system and catalogued into a
database. I then have total control over every file in the package.
- easy to install, remove or upgrade entire packages (no matter how
big or small the applications may be).
- I don't have the time to build lots and lots and lots of software.
I'm a sysadmin, and I spend my time managing several hundred
computers. rpm packages make my life a hell of a lot easier, and
things like upgrading to security bug-fixed updated versions become
very simple to do.
- I don't mind using something that someone else built - especially if
it's from a "trusted source". RedHat packages are usually built to
cater for almost all possible alternatives, and I've found this
useful as the same package will work on different computers. As a
sysadmin, this isn't a trivial issue. (I must admit that this is
very different to a computer user/hacker at home. I'm not managing
just one computer, but a couple of dozen servers and many client
boxes - and most of the linux boxes are essentially cloned redhat
kickstart installs).
If I really, REALLY want to modify the way a package is built and/or
installed, I can get the .src.rpm (source rpm package), install it
and then rebuilt the entire thing as an rpm after modifying the
.spec file to suit (eg, add some patches to customise the build
and/or install). But this is time and effort - usually time I don't
have.
- svgalib is a weird package to compile and install... last time I
looked at it (not all that long ago), you had to do a "make install"
to put the included header files into the system -- before the
binaries were even built. (I can't recall the exact details).
As a result, building svgalib on a redhat box is difficult to do
without trampling over any currently installed files, effectively
"corrupting" your system's rpm database. The only way I've been
able to do it is to first remove any svgalib packages that may
already be installed ("rpm -e --nodeps svgalib") and _then_ compile
it. After that I'm left with the task of hand-managing the files
that were installed. PITA.
I've never looked at the .spec file to see how the svgalib packages
have been built to get around this problem, but I suspect that 1.4.1
wouldn't be too different from the current 1.4.0-2 version released
with RH61. I suspect that someone has tried to do it... I'd just
like a copy of the result :)
(BTW, two rpm packages... one with the actual library, the other
with the development tools used to compile svgalib programs).
- if I do build and install any non-rpm-managed software, I make sure
that the bulk of it gets intstalled into /usr/local/ - anthing
that's in there is treated as non-rpm, but the rest of the system
(except /etc /home /var /root) is "managed" and there isn't such a
desperate need for backing it up and so on (it can all be easily
re-installed and reconfigured from a kickstart installation).
There are lots of advantages to using a managed system. I'm sure
debian people would agree too - they have their own system management
tools. They really make life easier.
[This is getting a little off-topic here, so any more contributions to
this thread from me will be private.]
Cheers
Tony
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Tony Nugent <Tony@growzone.com.au> Systems Administrator
GrowZone OnLine (a project of) GrowZone Development Network
POBox 475 Toowoomba Oueensland Australia 4350 Ph: 07 4637 8322
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