Unfortunately, we can't update that when we deliver new versions in
patches, so relying on the DESC field is not useful. There is no
generic way to find the "upstream" version of software in a Solaris
package - you have to rely on the software to have a -v or --version
or equivalent.
And that is precisely my point. Or at least one of them.
The problem with the package management system as it stands is that
it has changed little since Solaris 2 was first released and it is
almost entirely geared towards installing Sun-sourced software. This
is why we have the mismatch between the package version (which is the
version of the package, not the version of the software you are
installing) and the actual version of the software.
If you only ever install strict Sun packages (i.e. those purely
pertaining to the OS and the core Solaris group) then the package
versioning and management features make sense. Once you start
including third-party products (including those bundled by Sun as
well as those from SunFreeware and Blastwave) it starts to get
confusing.
I've been using Solaris since it was first released, I know the
issues and the history. But for a user migrating from Linux or even
BSD, the package management and version information, combined with
multiple potential sources for pre-packaged software, and even the
same versions of a product (Perl say) from multiple sources, all of
which install into different locations, is just a complete and
confusing mess.
This is only going to get worse with OpenSolaris as we're going to
get more people providing and supporting the package installation
method and more and more users wanting to install pre-packaged
versions of popular FOSS software.
We need some coherence, some improvements to the package management
software and the data that it stores, and a service that can combine
together the efforts of all the groups into a reliable way of finding
and ultimately installing the software.
As far as I know the package management tools aren't out there yet,
but they will certainly be on my list of things to investigate and
hopefully improve or extend.
MC
--
Martin 'MC' Brown, http://MCslp.com
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