At 07:36 PM 2/15/2005, you wrote: >I can imagine during the early development of cygwin, the rpm >package types were rather "unsupportable" -- especially on a >"first install", since no unix shell or coreutils are available. > >However, after the basic support is installed, what was the reasoning >for keeping packages in YAPM (YetAnotherPackageManager). > >It seems even a bit more surprising considering Cygwin's early >roots coming from a RedHat... > >Why is the current setup.exe "format" still the preferred format? >Would it be beneficial to start having the packages moved toward >rpm format? It would be useful, at times, to do the equivalent >of an "rpm -qf <filelist>", or "rpm -qi" for info, etc...Yes, >one can continue to reinvent the wheel by writing utils that parse >file lists in /etc/setup, but it seems that would be 'reinventing' >the wheel for no great purpose... > >So I guess I'm curious why Cygwin uses YAPM since RPM has been >ported? I'm not looking for any religious debates -- just >technical/engineering reasons why a different package. I'm not >"sold" on the rpm package manager, just wondering why the need >for creating another format? >It's weird -- I tried installing an RPM, and among files that >were listed as 'missing' were /bin/rm, /bin/sh, /usr/bin/perl >and libc -- I can see RPM not knowing about the libc package >name, but the filenames? I know they're installed, so what's >the scoop?
There's been plenty of discussion of this so if you're interested in the details, see the email archives. In particular, take a look at a recent thread (within the last couple of months) on the cygwin-apps list discussing setup alternatives and RPM. I think that thread in particular provides many of the answers you're looking for. -- Larry Hall http://www.rfk.com RFK Partners, Inc. (508) 893-9779 - RFK Office 838 Washington Street (508) 893-9889 - FAX Holliston, MA 01746 -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://cygwin.com/docs.html FAQ: http://cygwin.com/faq/