On 9/23/07, Levi Pearson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > "Brian Hawkins" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > > OK I've ranted long enough, here is my solution. Change the package > manager > > to install everything under one directory. For example if I were to > install > > Postgres on my system it would create a directory /programs/postgres82/ > and > > put the program there. In the program directory it would create a /usr > /var > > /bin or whatever it needed for the application to install. The package > > manager would also install whatever dependencies it required in the same > > location. Think of it as doing a chroot before installing the program > and > > it's dependencies. I Then change the loader to look in the local > program > > directory for libraries before it goes to the system wide directories. > > This is, coincidence or not, more or less how Mac OS X applications > are distributed, except there's no package manager. An application > bundle is a special kind of directory that contains all the resources, > libraries, etc. that an application needs. You just throw it wherever > you'd like on your filesystem, and if you want to get rid of it, you > just kill the bundle and it's all gone. No need to track dependencies > since they're included.
Yes I'm very familiar with how Mac does it. I have one. I love it except that there are not very many programs for the Mac. This technique for installing programs seems so brain dead simple, I just don't understand why Linux does not go this route. My suspicion is that the file system layout for Linux has a lot of baggage that die hards are not willing to get rid of. Brian /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
