"ocaml_beginners"::[] OCaml installation

[Richard Jones]

On Thu, Jun 12, 2008 at 03:23:17AM -0000, kechenghao wrote:
> Currently The OCaml has already been installedn on a Rat Hat machine, 
> which version is 3.09.3. 
> Now I want to update to new version 3.10.1
> Then I download a new rpm file. I try to install it at root 
> privilege. 
> I got error as follows: 
> [root at ft]$ rpm -i ocaml-3.10.1-1.el5.src.rpm 
> warning: ocaml-3.10.1-1.el5.src.rpm: V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 
> 05c387ef
> warning: user nogin does not exist - using root
> warning: group students does not exist - using root
[...]
> I'm confused what's "user nogin"? Do I need to uninstall the older 
> version first? Thanks. 

A few things to say here!

You're installing the source RPM (ie. the source code) so you'll need
to compile it.  The easiest way is to build the source RPM directly:

  rpmbuild --rebuild ocaml-3.10.1-1.el5.src.rpm

Note that you should *not* do this as root.  You will need to install
the binary RPMs that are produced as root later.

However didn't you mean to install a binary RPM?  I have no idea where
you got this RPM from so I don't know what's in it, whether it's
compatible with RHEL or Fedora, etc.

Another thing - when you say 'Red Hat machine' what do you mean?  For
RHEL 4/5 we support only OCaml 3.09.2 or 3.09.3 as described on this
page:
http://cocan.org/getting_started_with_ocaml_on_red_hat_and_fedora

We don't upgrade the base OCaml versions in RHEL because we want to
maintain binary compatibility for users at all times.  That means
there is no approved upgrade path to a later OCaml in RHEL
(deliberately).  If you are a paying customer and need a new feature
from a later version of OCaml then we would consider back-porting it
for you, or some other solution to meet your needs.

Finally 'user nogin' is the name of the person who built the source
RPM, and those warnings can just be ignored.

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones
Red Hat