From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Fri May 11 00:11:22 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B385F16A400 for ; Fri, 11 May 2007 00:11:22 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-hackers@m.gmane.org) Received: from ciao.gmane.org (main.gmane.org [80.91.229.2]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 387E313C44C for ; Fri, 11 May 2007 00:11:22 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-hackers@m.gmane.org) Received: from list by ciao.gmane.org with local (Exim 4.43) id 1HmIiP-0003Jm-QR for freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org; Fri, 11 May 2007 02:10:38 +0200 Received: from 89-172-50-90.adsl.net.t-com.hr ([89.172.50.90]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Fri, 11 May 2007 02:10:33 +0200 Received: from ivoras by 89-172-50-90.adsl.net.t-com.hr with local (Gmexim 0.1 (Debian)) id 1AlnuQ-0007hv-00 for ; Fri, 11 May 2007 02:10:33 +0200 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org From: Ivan Voras Date: Fri, 11 May 2007 02:10:05 +0200 Lines: 61 Message-ID: References: <200705102105.27271.blackdragon@highveldmail.co.za> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="------------enigDB6EC1D000090CDB58D57677" X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: 89-172-50-90.adsl.net.t-com.hr User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.10 (Windows/20070221) In-Reply-To: <200705102105.27271.blackdragon@highveldmail.co.za> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.94.3.0 Sender: news Subject: Re: New FreeBSD package system (a.k.a. Daemon Package System (dps)) X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 11 May 2007 00:11:22 -0000 This is an OpenPGP/MIME signed message (RFC 2440 and 3156) --------------enigDB6EC1D000090CDB58D57677 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable David Naylor wrote: > Dear Jordan >=20 > Recently I stumbled across a document you wrote in 2001, entitled "Free= BSD=20 > installation and package tools, past, present and future". I find Free= BSD=20 > appealing and I would like to contribute it its success, and as your ar= ticle=20 > describes, the installation and packaging system is lacking. Since the= =20 > installation system is being tackled under a SoC project I am hoping to= give=20 > the packaging system a go. =20 I've just read the document, and since I was also thinking about the ports/packages system lately, here are a few random ideas: - I think it's time to give up on using BDB+directory tree full of text files for storing the installed packages database, and I propose all of this be replaced by a single SQLite database. SQLite is public domain (can be slurped into base system), embeddable, stores all data in a single file, lightweight, fast, and can be used to do fancy things such as reporting. The current pkg_info's behaviour that takes *noticable* *time* to generate 1 line of output per package is horrible in this day and age. And the upcoming X11/X.Org 7.2 with cca 400 packages (which is in itself horrible just for a X11 system) will make it unbearable (also portupgrade which already looks slower by the day). - A quick test confirms that the current bsdtar will happily ignore any extra data at the end of a tgz/tbz archive, so package metadata can be embedded there, thus conserving existing infrastructure and being fast to parse. I suggest encoding this metadata in a sane and easy to parse XML structure. I cannot currently actively participate in implementing proposed things, but I can give advice on sqlite, database and xml schemas if anyone wants to... --------------enigDB6EC1D000090CDB58D57677 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.4 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFGQ7RdldnAQVacBcgRAsC5AJ9eOrtH/PZ1f0FCpUNCd5e8P0cepACgjJn1 4RDFx35acLcdnefjtDqgSEE= =/yM6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------enigDB6EC1D000090CDB58D57677--