Re: State of RPMs

Trond Eivind Glomsrød wrote:
> Thomas Lockhart <lockhart@alumni.caltech.edu> writes:
> > > And don't say that Mandrake needs to get with the program -- it's awful
> > > hard to get with an _undocumented_ program.  It's hard to use a feature
> > > you don't know about.  Just look at the confusion on rpm-list of rpm v4.

> > Hmm. I had purchased the RPM book quite some time ago, but have found no
> > source of info for rpm-3 features. afaict the program (or at least its
> > more recent features) has been undocumented for a while. But I haven't
> > looked recently...

There is a RPM-HOWTO -- but it helps little.  There is a overview of RPM
3 written by Jeff Johnson -- but it isn't really detailed enough.  It
reminds me of the old "Impress your friends with RPM" section of the
RedHat 4.x documentation....

> > Or, let's rephrase this in a positive way: Trond, where would be the
> > best places to look for these newer features? I recall looking at other
> > spec files to stumble across stuff that wasn't in the book.
> The doc directory of rpm and the macros file - 3.0.5 has been
> released(with much stuff from 4.0-series) , 4.0 is due soon. After
> that, the current plan is for the author to spend a couple of
> hours/day creating more documentation.

That is _good_ news.  The doc directory had _some_ information -- but
nothing on --buildpolicy.  Just a simple "--buildpolicy does this..."
note in the man page, even, would be nice.

A new "Maximum RPM" would be nicer, though. (I am aware of the current
project for the updation of Maximum RPM online....and I'm also aware
that it really hasn't gone anywhere as of the last time I checked.)

Sorry to sound so negative -- but I've been banging my head against that
for a little while -- the --buildpolicy sounds like such a good feature
-- but I even went to the source -- and it told me very little.  I am
chomping at the bit, so to speak, to start using this amazing
portability feature -- but I am frustrated by lack of concise docs to
show me just what I need to do to use it to its full effect.

And, Trond, you have been very helpful, as you _are_ in the know about
these features that I am not aware of.
--
Lamar Owen
WGCR Internet Radio
1 Peter 4:11