Lynne and IPS folks , I have the following section in my IPS book. Does it clarify or confuse the terminology further?
An authority and a repository definition are sometimes used interchangeably and have different/separate meanings at other times. The following points expound upon the definitions to better explain their usage. . ■ An authority is a person, groups of persons, or a corporation that publishes a package and is responsible for maintaining those packages. (I see that Chris Kampmeier has a slightly different definition as well. Perhaps it is better to include his into the book ?) ■ A repository is a source for packages. Packages are downloaded from this location. ■ A repository can contain packages from many authorities. Conversely many repositories can contain packages from a single authority. ■ A default or preferred authority is similar to a default catalog. Any package chosen for installation is first searched for in the preferred authority's catalog. This package may be available for download from different repositories. (Extrapolating from Stephen's Penguin/Puffin example). ■ You can have many repositories and one default authority. In this case, the default authority becomes the default repository. ■ If there is only one default repository, it also becomes the default authority. Please let me know of errors and if any of the above is not true in the current release of IPS. Thanks, Jyothi Shawn Walker wrote: >Shawn Walker wrote: > > >>[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> >> >>>With all due respect, preferred authority and default repository are >>>synonymous. We just happened to choose one set of terms over the other. >>> >>>It seems correct to equate a preferred authority with a default >>>repository. >>> >>> >>Yes, but a user doesn't set things by repository, they set them by >>authority. Our terminology is confusing enough as it is without using >>the terms interchangeably. >> >> > >...and before I forget, there was a question brought up not too long >about whether multiple authorities could be hosted in a single repository. > >As such, I don't think it's safe to equate the two. > > > -- Jyothi Srinath Technical Writer Solaris Developers Group 650-786-9830 _______________________________________________ pkg-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/pkg-discuss
