Re: [RPM] Re: [rpm] Re: rpm & ssh Prior life: [rpm] Re: Using URL in Source/Patch?

[Jeff Johnson <jbj JBJ ORG>]

On Thu, Feb 15, 2001 at 11:29:13AM -0500, Carlo Marcelo Arenas Belon wrote:
> On Thu, 15 Feb 2001, Ian Alexander wrote:
> 
> > Perhaps instead of remote querying, we should develop a utility that
> > will create a description index for an rpm repository.  People could
> > download the index to see what they need.  The utility wouldn't be that
> > hard; we'd just need to encourage people to use it.  Thoughts?
> > Comments?  Flames?  Well, ok, not flames.  :)
> 
> nice idea!!, i bet something on XML could be done for making it more
> accesible.
> 

XML would be good. However, please make sure that you understand that
XML is a "representation" of data, not a "method" to access data. It really
doesn't matter how the data is represented (although XML would probably
be my 1st choice) if there are no "methods" to access the data in an efficient
manner.

> so we can query, and fix dependencies before even the downloading of the
> rpm starts.
> 

Depends on whether you thing rpm from the command line should do resolve
dependencies. Without access to network transport from the command line,
it's not worth attempting to solve the dependency resolution problem,
and that has been the rate limiting step on what I call

	The Problem Of Apt

> something like a .hdr file could be downloaded instead so all the
> parameters for the rpm could be known on advance.
> 
> i think we could use the W3C promoted RDF to make such a files and then...
> 
> wait!!, isn't it what rpm2html/rpmfind has been doing for years?
> 
>   http://rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/
> 
> just a thought ;P
> 

Mostly correct, but it's only recently that rpmfind has tried to download
packages and install. And don't forget the ever increasing number of
automated install utilities including
	Apt
	Red Hat Network
	Helix
and ther's 4 or 5 more as well.

FWIW, all of them have access to network transport, so I return to the
original question posed:

	Should rpm have *any* protocol support at all?

73 de Jeff

-- 
Jeff Johnson	ARS N3NPQ
jbj@jbj.org	(jbj@redhat.com)
Chapel Hill, NC