An attempt at improving cross-distribution software deployment: The Psys Library

[seth vidal]

On Thu, 2010-06-24 at 16:35 +0200, Michal Marek wrote:

> > If removing the package just involves removing the package's files (a 
> > common case for a lot of end-user applications), then "rpm -e" will work 
> > flawlessly (the installer informs the package manager about all 
> > installed files with libpsys). The interface does currently not allow 
> > installers to specify uninstall scripts, though this feature could be 
> > trivially added if needed.
> 
> I consider this a bit dangerous, if the "official" uninstaller performs
> other tasks than deleting files, these should be performed by rpm -e as
> well.
> 


Agreed. Sysadmins like to have everything in the packaging system for a
number of reasons:

1. inventory
2. monitoring for updates
3. one-stop-shop for all info about what is on the system
4. ease of removal
5. ease of reinstallation/duplication.

My thoughts on psys are something to this effect:

1. it should definitely add any uninstaller scripts to the %postun of
the package system

2. it should potentially add an option to generate a package in the
format of the packaging system from the files specified to it - that
would aid in helping sysadmins deploy the isv software on more systems
(number 5 above).

so think of it something like:

psys --install-from-files=<fileslist> --name=myisv --version=1.1.1
--release=1 --generate-package ... ... ..

which puts a pkg entry into the packaging systems' db (rpmdb or deb
packages list) and generates a package file (.rpm or .deb).

-sv