[WBEL-users] Re: RPM Gui?

[William Hooper]

Joe Brouhard said:
>
> Actually, it's a slight bit different.  SPEC files allow you to build
> binary RPMs.  The *BSD ports tree and Gentoo Portage build EVERYTHING from
> source.  There is nothing 'binary' about it.

I don't see the distinction.  The existence of WBEL shows that src.rpms
provide everything you need to build from source.

> The SPEC file is not quite as complicated as the BSD ports or Gentoo
> Portage's .ebuilds tho
>
>> My understand of Gentoo is that it does things similar to the *BSD
>> ports,
>> but again, it still requires someone to create the "package" before you
>> can compile and install it using the distro tools.
>>
>
> There's no "package"... Period.  At all.  I run Gentoo Linux at home and
> on a production server... and there are *NO* Packages.  Nothing binary.

A src.rpm is no less a package than a i386.rpm.  Anyway, the point still
was "no .ebuild, no portage".

> Everything about Gentoo is to build from the source.  No exceptions.  The
> .ebuild is nothing more than a set of instructions, much like the SPEC
> file of RPMs, on how portage is to build this product.

Source tarball and instructions to build it.  Yep, that's a src.rpm.

>> Having a large collection of software is different then going and
>> grabbing
>> random tarballs from the Internet and automagically installing them.
>>
>
> I'll have to agree here.  However, the ports and Portage system have a
> major advantage over RPMs - complete reverse dependency support.  yes, it
> creates a management nightmare on whoever managed the trees, however it
> does create a complete repository, whereas RPMs cannot do this very well.

Many RPM dependencies are because of the system the package was built on. 
Rebuilding the src.rpm is sufficient in a number of cases.  Really no
different in my eyes.  Ports and Portage are just a front end to the
process.

> Besides, here's some food for thought.. anyone ever wonder how many
> gigabytes it'd take to have a repository of *EVERY* and *ALL* programs
> available on the internet???  I'm refering to source tarballs, not binary
> packages...

LOL, am I hearing the beginning of another Google Labs invention? 
Repoogle,  the biggest repo on the Internet...

--
William Hooper