Re: LSB Package API

[Denis Washington <dwashington gmx net>]

On Sat, 2008-06-21 at 13:20 +0200, Yaakov Nemoy wrote:
> How is this different than PackageKit?  PackageKit seems to cover the
> use case of presenting a comprehensive API and userspace tools to
> manage packages consistently across distros.  What can the Berlin API
> do that PackageKit doesn't do, and doesn't make sense for PackageKit
> to do?
> 
> -Yaakov

While the use cases of PackageKit are related to the Berlin API, they
are pretty different. PackageKit is focused on providing a frontend for
managing repository-based package systems, like apt and and yum. It is
mainly thought to abstract installation and upgrades from package
repositories, like when an application likes to install a package with a
particular name from the distro's repos. However, it does not address
the problem of software distribution itself - the repositories and
package files are still specific to the packagaing system.

The Berlin API, on the other side, does exlclusively deal with providing
a package-manager-neutral software distribution method. So the Berlin
API is not a replacement for PackageKit, but a complement. In fact, as
the software installed with the Berlin API is added to the package
system's database, it can be managed (e.g. uninstalled) with PackageKit
afterwards - a dream team! ;)

Regards,
Denis Washington