Hi everyone: I'm asking this question here since there are many distribution builders on this list.
I'm having a discussion with some colleagues about the merits of installing native libraries via a package manager than by compiling source on production. Compiling source on production is how most Ruby application developers deploy rubygems having native bindings onto production servers. My reasoning for using package managers includes the following: - the various benefits listed at wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package_management_system) - dependency resolution - file verification (e.g. rpm -V) - roll forward - roll back - to the extent possible by various package managers My reasoning against compiling on production: - doesn't help resolve dependency hell when you start to upgrade libraries partly (when A depends on J1 and B1, while B1 depends on J2). A package manager would tell you very quickly when you run into such situations. - There's some message somewhere about installing only the bare minimum files onto a production server. Compilers and Devel files are not required on production. Have such topics been discussed somewhere ? Have you faced such questions from your end users or in life ? -- Sriram ================== Belenix: www.belenix.org ______________________________________________________________________ RPM Package Manager http://rpm5.org User Communication List rpm-users@rpm5.org
