Differences between version 18 and previous revision of PackageManagementTool.
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| Newer page: | version 18 | Last edited on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 5:39:40 am | by AristotlePagaltzis | Revert |
| Older page: | version 17 | Last edited on Monday, September 22, 2003 11:36:11 pm | by AristotlePagaltzis | Revert |
@@ -1,13 +1,15 @@
+Most [PackageManagementTool]s revolve around binary distributions of [Package]s. That is, they consult a repository of pre-compiled packages and install the package best suited to your system architecture. They may also offer source packages, allowing you to build the [Package] locally with whatever patches and optimization or configuration options you may have chosen. Other [PackageManagementTool]s are source based - they may not even provide binary [Package]s at all, but at least try really hard to avoid them. These download the sources for a [Package], apply any vendor-provided patches, then compile on the local machine. This process takes considerably longer, but some people swear it gives them much better performance. It does have the advantage that you can taylor the system very closely to your desires, but is not much fun on slow machines, particularly for the desktop where such mammoths as [GNOME], [KDE], [Mozilla], and [OpenOffice] are waiting to occupy your machine for hours on end.
+
There are several main 'flavours' of PackageManagementTool in use in various LinuxDistribution. These include:
-; ''rpm'' : Redhat
Package Manager. Obviously, RedHat uses this, but [Mandrake] and a handful of others do as well. File format is [RPM].
-; ''dpkg'' : This is [Debian]'s package
manager. KnoppixLinux, [Progeny] and other [LinuxDistribution]s are "Debian-based". File format is [Deb].
-; ''.tgz'' : [Slackware] uses [TarBall]s that include pre-
and post install scripts
.
+; ''rpm'' : RedHat [
Package]
Manager. Obviously, RedHat uses this, but [Mandrake] and a handful of others do as well. File format is [RPM].
+; ''dpkg'' : This is [Debian]'s [Package]
manager. KnoppixLinux, [Progeny] and other [LinuxDistribution]s are "Debian-based" and thus use this as well
. File format is [Deb].
+; ''.tgz'' : [Slackware] uses nearly plain
[TarBall]s that include a description
and a postinstall script
.
; ''ports'' : This is the source based PackageManagementTool that [BSD] uses. Several [LinuxDistribution]s use a similar idea.
; ''portage'' : [GentooLinux]' version of source based PackageManagement, driven by a tool called ''emerge''.
; ''spells'' : SorcerorLinux has a 'spell book' approach to source based PackageManagement.
Frontends to these tools include:
; ''up2date'' : a front-end to rpm provided by RedHat. You get to use it on one machine per user free, and can pay for the right to use it on more machines. It's probably worth it for most users, as it makes installing new software and keeping up with upgrades really easy.
; ''apt'' : one of the best tools around. It traditionally wraps dpkg, but there is an AptForRpm variant now (and rapidly gaining popularity). It was the first front-end to nicely handle dependencies: ''apt-get install foo'' will automatically download and install not only ''foo'', but also any unfulfilled dependencies ''foo'' may have.
