Peter Tribble wrote:
If the packaging system is so inflexible that administrators are unable to
define or implement the policies they need to, they have several options,
including (a) being miserable, (b) violating the packaging system by going
behind its back, (c) using a different packaging system. I'm not looking
forward to living in such a world.
Should all portions of a package be optionally installable?
In other words, should IPS support options to omit files
from installation by regular expression?
You seem to want to treat packages of software as a development
kit, to be edited and changed as desired. This is a fine idea, but
rather different than the publisher had in mind.
The function of a packaging system is to deliver the software as
specified in the packaging manifest. The file ownership, permissions,
dependencies, etc specified in a package are part of the design of that
software system. Allowing "edits" by admins means that package can
no longer satisfy any external dependencies, and may well not be
functional by itself.
I've not completely explored the full range of options that facets would allow,
but does it allow the installation of any particular facet without any other
component of the package being installed? In particular, if documentation
were a facet, would I be able to install the documentation on its own? (This
is something I do all the time, so I can access documentation locally on my
desktop where it's nice and snappy.)
No. If you want to do this, we should publish the docs in separate
packages, and reference them as faceted dependencies. A single group
package (the equiv. of SUNWman today) could bring them all in. This is
likely the direction we'll head anyway, since it greatly facilitates
publishing.
- Bart
--
Bart Smaalders Solaris Kernel Performance
[email protected] http://blogs.sun.com/barts
"You will contribute more with mercurial than with thunderbird."
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