From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: (from majordomo@localhost) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) id RAA15597; Mon, 27 Aug 2001 17:46:38 +0200 (MET DST) X-Authentication-Warning: pauillac.inria.fr: majordomo set sender to owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr using -f Received: from nez-perce.inria.fr (nez-perce.inria.fr [192.93.2.78]) by pauillac.inria.fr (8.7.6/8.7.3) with ESMTP id RAA15838 for ; Mon, 27 Aug 2001 17:46:37 +0200 (MET DST) Received: from mail6.speakeasy.net (mail6.speakeasy.net [216.254.0.206]) by nez-perce.inria.fr (8.11.1/8.10.0) with ESMTP id f7RFkan02715 for ; Mon, 27 Aug 2001 17:46:36 +0200 (MET DST) Received: (qmail 29827 invoked from network); 27 Aug 2001 15:46:25 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO itz) ([64.81.49.223]) (envelope-sender ) by mail6.speakeasy.net (qmail-ldap-1.03) with SMTP for ; 27 Aug 2001 15:46:25 -0000 Received: from itz by itz with local (Exim 3.22 #1 (Debian)) id 15bOam-0005F5-00 for ; Mon, 27 Aug 2001 08:46:24 -0700 To: caml-list@inria.fr (OCAML) Subject: [Caml-list] Package dependencies [Was: standard regex package] References: <3750.998602056@saul.cis.upenn.edu> <01082400035105.02716@ice> <20010823151135.B8952@caddr.com> <01082402081307.02716@ice> <20010824112654.C6986@dpt-info.u-strasbg.fr> From: Ian Zimmerman Date: 27 Aug 2001 08:46:24 -0700 In-Reply-To: <20010824112654.C6986@dpt-info.u-strasbg.fr> Message-ID: <86d75hsdyn.fsf_-_@speakeasy.org> User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) Emacs/20.7 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: owner-caml-list@pauillac.inria.fr Precedence: bulk Miles> One danger in developing such a system is that you'll wind up duplicating the Miles> rather extensive functionality of existing package management systems. RPM and Miles> DEB both handle these kinds of dependencies and are fairly complex systems for Miles> it. CPAN has its shortcomings, but it also works suprisingly well most of the Miles> time. I think you should at least consider taking a "worse-is-better" approach Miles> and build something that works and leave the delicate dependency management to Miles> the distribution packagers. Gerd> As far as I know, RPM/DEP focus on binary installations, and source packages Gerd> exist only to conveniently make binary packages. This means: Someone already Gerd> has reviewed the package and decided which versions to take. Sven> debian package include source dependencies, and you are true, it is the work Sven> of the package maintainer to provide those, aided by the numerous bug reports Sven> we get from the porters if the build dependencies are bad. Sven> That said, normally each package has listed in it's INSTALL/README the Sven> dependencies, though in an informal way. Sven> Maybe a kind of more formal dependency listing would be nice, which would be Sven> shared by all ocaml related sources, and may then be filled in the Sven> corresponding debian/rpm control files. The good thing about CPAN the module, and really the whole Perl build and install scheme, when it works, is precisely that it eases installation of tarballs [1] _which are not (yet) available_ in the native OS binary form; and it does this in a way that doesn't conflict with the OS installation. That is, the distinction it makes between INSTALLPRIVLIB and INSTALLSITELIB. I believe this point is really fudamental to the Perl scheme, and is really what people mean when they use the term "CPAN" in this thread. To behave like that, yes we do need formal dependencies in the tarballs, completely independent of the dependencies an OS packager might add at the time of creating a binary package, and exploited in a uniform way by the tarball installation process (even if it is only for a check target, as Perl does it). I think the present findlib already does this, when configured properly; let's keep this functionality whichever way Ocaml build/install is eventually implemented. [1] I intentionally use the term "tarball" here to emphasise the distinction from "packages" which are things the OS maintainer (not the software author) makes. -- Ian Zimmerman, Oakland, California, U.S.A. The easiest way to win an argument: ridicule your opponent's basic assumptions by stating their negation and postfixing it with ", right?" GPG pub key: 433BA087 9C0F 194F 203A 63F7 B1B8 6E5A 8CA3 27DB 433B A087 ------------------- Bug reports: http://caml.inria.fr/bin/caml-bugs FAQ: http://caml.inria.fr/FAQ/ To unsubscribe, mail caml-list-request@inria.fr Archives: http://caml.inria.fr