Actually, *.tgz stands for tar-gnu-zip. It runs gnu-zip on the tar file. the result is a compressed tar file. 'tar' stands for Tape Archive. It's an old format (possibly from the 70's), well burned in, and obviously still very much in use. tar's original intended use was to stream archive files to tape in a way that retains all the attribute information (mod times, permissions, etc) about the file and it's original place in the directory heirarchy. 'cpio' (similar function) is not so popular these days but I am not sure why. Tar does a great job of retaining all the file info so when you explode it you have what you thought you had. It also has some other useful intelligence. After experimenting with many, tar is my archiving program of choice (the choice for many others too, I take it) .
Comparing tar amd rpm are like apples and oranges. Let's be careful mixing them. tar is ONLY a program to put a directory structure into a single file while maintaining all the attributes of those files as well as their place in the tree. *.rpm's, on the other hand, are package files with much packaging info. This means: dependency info, version info (of the package, not the files), where the files should be placed for the program to run, what their permissions should be (something thought out seriously during packaging), and other info related to "packaging". Converting from one to the other could only be a hack job with information certainly lost in the process. They are different formats, with different intentions, for different purposes, designed in different decades by different generations with different mentalities. (boy that was a mouthfull. it's true though.) The fact that tar is used for software to be installed speaks of it's reliability and the fact that it accurately retains everything about the individual files and the directory structures it encodes. It can collect source code, libraries, make files with compile and linking instructions, configuration scripts and scripts coded to throw files out to various places in your directoriess and script code to reset permissions... but it is NOT a packaging format. A packaging format (rpm) is a very different animal. Redhat as put so much into their packaging format and made it so robust that many distro's now use it. That's at tribute to Redhat. I gather there is a lot to the 'rpm' format. A lot of intelligence in it. It would be good to have a lecture/presentation on packaging and rpm in particular. I heard one of those once where the guy showed us how to create an rpm package. My thought to myself was: "this is deep!" I don't remember much about it except that "it was deep". That guy is now in Hungary but I suppose we can ask him if he'd like to make the trip to speak at one of our meetings :) (just kidding). It IS an important LINUX topic. Thanks, Kim, for bringing it up. Let's see where it takes us. Wayne PinkFreud wrote: > On Sun, Jan 13, 2002 at 05:43:22PM -0500, Kim Goldenberg babbled thus: > > Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2002 17:43:22 -0500 > > From: Kim Goldenberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Subject: Re: Presentations for February Meeting? > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.1 > > > > Another thing I would like to understand is the differences between a .tgz > > file (a gzipped tarball) and an RPM, and can one be made into the other > > (and if so, how?)? > > .tgz is simply a DOS-friendly .tar.gz. It's also typically used by the > Slackware distribution for it's packages (installpkg/removepkg/...). > As for converting between them, you can try 'alien'. Slackware also > includes a utility called 'rpm2tgz' for quickly converting RPM packages > to Slackware packages. > > > > > > This could be a part of a discussion as to how and when to upgrade your > > software, perhaps. Often you get one or the other and RH and Mandrake have > > ways of tracking the RPM updates, but not the .tgz ones. It would be nice > > to have something to keep track of what you have on your system without > > spending 20-30 minutes to find the simple information and > > who-knows-how-long for the more difficult ones. > > If the .tgz in question is a binary package (Slackware), then you > should be able to utilize alien to convert the package to .rpm before > you install it. You could also try installing Slackware's package > utilities under whichever distribution you use, although I don't know > how well that would work, and may be more trouble than it's worth to > keep track of two seperate packaging systems (which is why I typically > convert RPMs to tgz before installing on my Slackware systems). > > > > > > (Just some random thoughts) > > > > TIA > > Kim > > -- > > Mike Edwards > > Brainbench certified Master Linux Administrator > http://www.brainbench.com/transcript.jsp?pid=158188 > ----------------------------------- > Unsolicited advertisments to this address are not welcome.
