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Binary Package Formats Compared
jjaimon writes "There is a document on different package formats used in Linux/Unix systems. Worth reading." Another reader sends in this guide to creating Debian packages which seems apropos here.
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I'm sure this will erupt into a huge flamewar like the last time it was posted when all it boils down to is that it doesn't really matter much to end users about the package format as long as the installation and upgrades are made easy. For me, aptitude/apt with .deb packages has proven easiest, but a lot of people like apt with RPM or RedCarpet or rpmfind or whatever else is out there. Lindows users use the 'one-click' install thing not even caring that there are .deb's behind the scene.
Part of the reason, I think that the deb format has always seemed to hold together really well is that most all of teh deb using distributions are so tightly integrated with the main debian distribution that packages are always totoally interchangeable (and are very good to notify you when they will not work.)
RPM on the other hand is adopted by many different and sligtly incompatible distributions that often finding the libraries and applications you want to install is difficult not because RPM's are hard to find but because RPM's that work in your current setup are hard to find.
This is simply why the management tool(s) on both ends (creating packages and maintaining installed packages) matter way more than the package formats themselves. Deb's are very compicated but sometimes easier to deal with because of all the good debhelper tools. RPM's are most often more 'hand-crafted', but they are a lot easier to create from scratch for many people.
The thing I really hate about deb's is the lack of signature verification. It's absolutely central to the development/upload/build process but until very recent efforts has been a total pain to use on the installation front. There is no good reason for this either.
~GoRK
What Linux really needs is a dir-independent application running /usr/bin to /usr/local/bin). Most packages, including g++, configure
system. Imagine a package of...oh, say, g++, where g++ runs properly
even if you move the whole g++ package to a different dir (say from
themselves to run in one location, and they'll get confused if you
move 'em.
Some packages (eg Tomcat) let you move them and they'll still
work...but only if you set an environment variable (eg TOMCAT_HOME)
so that Tomcat now knows where it lives. In a proper environment, an
application could easily & consistently know where it currently
resides on the filesystem *cough* OSX *cough*.
What Linux needs is some standard 'run-app' script that would inform
a package of its location. For instance:
% run-app tomcat
Run-app would be simple, say, the following:
#!/bin/sh -f
$app = shift
$location = `which $app`
env {$app}_home = $location $location/bin/app
That would enable Linux to devise a package format (or better yet,
improve rpm, deb, etc) for more flexible package management.
A package would no longer need to place its binary, libraries,
manpages, etc. all in hardwired locations in the OS...it could just
leave them in its original dir. (or maybe create a 'obj' dir that you
can remove if you wish to clean up the package.)
Practice Kind Randomness and Beautiful Acts of Nonsense.
One of the main reasons I enjoy DEB binary packages which also do not have any of the bad issues you mention is this:
.deb from that, not just to install on that machine (Personally I like the fact i can remove it with a package manager) but i can also install that binary package I made myself on my slower systems that dont have a compiler installed.
I'll download the source and compile it on my nice fast zippy P4 2.6ghz machine, then build a
My three router computers are all p133 or p166 machines. No way am I compiling anything there. Routers also dont need gcc installed.
I run my own private apt repository for this (Its just apache and some config files in text format, and one more line in my apt sources file.)
This way I can tell whichever machines to apt-get it, and later I can apt-get remove it as well.
I also dont have a huge server farm, I just have 8 machines at home for different purposes. Below the P4 mentioned above, my next fastest system is a p2 450. The others get way slower below that (p2 200 and the like, or worse.)
I also dont want a compiler on any system but my development system. The machines in my DMZ dont need compilers, as if they do happen to get rooted, that's one less tool for them to use aginst me.
Open source is also about choice. Please let us have ours, even if you have made your own.
Definitely one of the features which makes Linux a powerful OS. A good and well-configured packaging system can be a blessing, automagically resolving dependancies or at least telling you where and how things will fuck up. The problem with package managers is that there are quite a few of them around. Normally, diversity would be a good thing but those package managers don't seem too willing to process eachother's packages...
For example, RPM packages are almost common these days; most open source software has a few packages ready to be implemented. Pretty much the same thing with Debian packages, because of the large userbase. Chances are that a few hours after the release of a major product someone has made a .deb somewhere, ready for you to install. However, if you'd look beyond these two packaging systems, you'd get a few nasty surprises...
The TGZ packaging scheme (also mentioned in the article, along with RPM and DEB) just... Well... Sucks. Or at least in Slackware, I don't know if any other distributions use it differently but lets use Slackware's TGZ system as an example for now. What's wrong with it, you ask? First of all (and possible the foremost reason) it's almost unused. Apart from the Slackware packages itself, I've never seen anyone distribute something in the TGZ format which worked. That excludes the few things which I found and simply refused to install. It doesn't do dependancy checking, conflict-checking, heck, it doesn't do anything or so it seems. I'd continue but ranting about the bad parts of Slackware isn't the issue at hand.
The issue at hand are the two remaining package systems, which might be technically sound and quite useable, but they still won't have allot of use. Who here has ever heard of SLP and PKG packages? And even then, who here knows of any major applications which distribute their software using those package systems? Sure, SLP and PKG might be a dream to use, but without any actual packages to install, they're (possibly sadly?) not really of any value.
Which brings us back to RPM and DEB, apparently two of the most common systems, courtesy of Red Hat and Debian. Looking at the list of summed up data, it's really not a miracle those two are more common: Both support mostly options listed, both are backed by a large amount of users/developers and both are relatively easy to use, yet still distinct. Perhaps a system which allows multiple systems to cooperate (regarding dependancies and conflicts and the like) would be a nice compliment to both RPM and DEB?
Hate me!
All of these formats could be done better. The OpenPackages project had a design project underway to consider the features of an ideal, multi- platform package format early last year but it seems to have died from lack of input. It'd be great to see it get a breath of new life. If nothing else, this article could serve as a starting point for what we do and don't like about current formats.
Zero Install
"The Zero Install system makes software installation not merely easy, but unnecessary. Users run their applications directly from the Internet from the software author's pages. Caching makes this as fast as running a normal application after the first time, and allows off-line use."
Experimental, but give it a try. See especially the comparison with apt-get and the security model documents.