RFC: Soname in rpm name

[Axel Thimm]

On Tue, Jan 25, 2005 at 02:24:06AM -0200, Alexandre Oliva wrote:
> On Jan 24, 2005, Axel Thimm <Axel.Thimm at ATrpms.net> wrote:
> > On Mon, Jan 24, 2005 at 03:05:29PM -0200, Alexandre Oliva wrote:
> >> On Jan 24, 2005, Ralf Ertzinger <fedora-devel at camperquake.de> wrote:
> >> > The problem with this is that RPM does not indicate whether a package has
> >> > "end user value" (a command line or GUI program, or a daemon), or is just
> >> > a support library needed by said end user programs, which can be removed
> >> > if not needed by anyone.
> >> 
> >> Could we perhaps add such a flag to the rpm database?  Then the
> >> installer and the various other package installation front-ends could
> >> mark user- (or comps-)requested packages as having end user value, and
> >> everything else brought in to satisfy dependencies such that it is (or
> >> can be) removed as soon as no dependencies remain.
> 
> > ATrpms has started marking library only packages with
> 
> > 		Provides: shared-library-package
> 
> > so these packages can be identifies with
> 
> > 		rpm --whatprovides shared-library-package
> 
> > and be probed for garbage collection.
> 
> The weak point of your argument is that it assumes that the only kind
> of package that doesn't provide "end user value" is the kind that
> provides shared-library-package.  This is just not true, although I
> must admit it's the most common case.

Well, "anems are but sound and smoke". Originally I had "rtp" for
runtimepackage, but this sounded like coming from the Windows side of
the world.

Since the current greatest pain are shared libs I decided to get more
specific. I wouldn't mind an alternative suggestion. The important
thing is that the mechanism works.

> > I.e. there is no need to extend rpm, you have everything already in
> > place.
> 
> Not quite.  Consider that I might actually want to keep a shared lib
> around (say libdvdcss, only used as a plugin by libdvdread).  With
> your scheme, there's no way to tell it from any other shared
> lib-providing package, so it could be garbage collected along with
> other libs.

Well, make the garbage collector have a config file with a filter with
user configurable hold-backs. That isn't rocket science, is it? ;)
-- 
Axel.Thimm at ATrpms.net
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