Re: [Caml-list] Some comments on recent discussions

[Edgar Friendly <thelema314@gmail.com>]

On 12/10/2011 04:12 PM, rixed@happyleptic.org wrote:
> What I'd really like is a way to mix any version I want of the packages I
> install, especially experimental versions for the packages I want to test or
> contribute to.
> I stopped using GODI some time ago because I wanted master of ocaml and
> batteries but stable versions of everything else.  So I ended up rolling my
> own makefile-based installation/upgrade tool which is both annoying and
> archaic.
>
> Is this in the planned feature list?
>
>
This is possible currently, by using the --stable, --testing and 
--unstable flags when installing different packages.  Of course, the 
downside of this is that there's no guarantee or test of compatibility 
between packages and different versions of OCaml (and possibly each 
other).  Oasis packages can have versioned dependencies, which helps, 
but the only real guarantee I think that odb can make is that the stable 
repo all works with each other.  Maybe the testing repo too, sometimes, 
but definitely not the unstable repo.

The above all assumes that the versions you want are packaged and in 
oasis-db.  Auto installation from repositories (or local directories) 
has been considered, but there's some more code to add, as currently the 
oasis-db server parses _oasis files for deps, and odb is designed to be 
extremely lightweight.

On that note, one more thing about odb - it has no configuration or 
database of what packages are installed.  It doesn't even have the 
ability to remove a package (not that this couldn't be hacked up in not 
too much time for library packages).  If you ask it to install a 
package, it checks for deps by asking findlib what's installed.  It 
doesn't try to control things as much as GODI seems to.  It just does 
the minimum necessary to get the job done.  This means it plays as 
nicely as possible with packages installed by whatever other means you 
wish, even GODI.

E.