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:date: $Date: 2006/10/10 20:25:14 $
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<body bgcolor="white">
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<table class="navigation" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"
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width="100%" border="0">
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<tr><td class="navicon" width="150" height="35">
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<a href="http://www.gentoo.org/" title="Gentoo Linux Home Page">
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<img src="http://www.gentoo.org/images/gentoo-new.gif" alt="[Gentoo]"
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border="0" width="150" height="35" /></a></td>
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<td class="textlinks" align="left">
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[<b><a href="http://www.gentoo.org/">Gentoo Linux Home</a></b>]
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[<b><a href="http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep/">GLEP Index</a></b>]
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[<b><a href="http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep/glep-0049.txt">GLEP Source</a></b>]
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</td></tr></table>
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<table class="rfc2822 docutils field-list" frame="void" rules="none">
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<col class="field-name" />
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<col class="field-body" />
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<tbody valign="top">
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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">GLEP:</th><td class="field-body">49</td>
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</tr>
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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Title:</th><td class="field-body">Alternative Package Manager requirements</td>
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</tr>
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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Version:</th><td class="field-body">1.4</td>
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</tr>
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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Last-Modified:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/xml/htdocs/proj/en/glep/glep-0049.txt?cvsroot=gentoo">2006/09/05 20:54:30</a></td>
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</tr>
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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Author:</th><td class="field-body">Paul de Vrieze <pauldv at gentoo.org>,</td>
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</tr>
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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Status:</th><td class="field-body">Rejected</td>
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</tr>
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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Type:</th><td class="field-body">Standards Track</td>
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</tr>
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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Content-Type:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="glep-0002.html">text/x-rst</a></td>
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</tr>
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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Created:</th><td class="field-body">18-May-2006</td>
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</tr>
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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Post-History:</th><td class="field-body">19-May-2006, 6-Sep-2006</td>
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</tr>
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</tbody>
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</table>
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<hr />
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<div class="contents topic">
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<p class="topic-title first"><a id="contents" name="contents">Contents</a></p>
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<ul class="simple">
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<li><a class="reference" href="#status" id="id7" name="id7">Status</a></li>
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<li><a class="reference" href="#abstract" id="id8" name="id8">Abstract</a></li>
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<li><a class="reference" href="#motivation" id="id9" name="id9">Motivation</a></li>
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<li><a class="reference" href="#rationale" id="id10" name="id10">Rationale</a></li>
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<li><a class="reference" href="#backwards-compatibility" id="id11" name="id11">Backwards Compatibility</a></li>
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<li><a class="reference" href="#categories-of-package-managers" id="id12" name="id12">Categories of package managers</a></li>
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<li><a class="reference" href="#package-manager-requirements" id="id13" name="id13">Package manager requirements</a><ul>
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<li><a class="reference" href="#primary-package-manager-requirements" id="id14" name="id14">Primary package manager requirements</a></li>
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<li><a class="reference" href="#candidate-primary-package-manager-requirements" id="id15" name="id15">Candidate primary package manager requirements</a></li>
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<li><a class="reference" href="#secondary-package-manager-requirements" id="id16" name="id16">Secondary package manager requirements</a></li>
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<li><a class="reference" href="#third-party-package-manager-requirements" id="id17" name="id17">Third party package manager requirements</a></li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li><a class="reference" href="#transition-phases" id="id18" name="id18">Transition phases</a><ul>
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<li><a class="reference" href="#primary-package-manager-transition-phase" id="id19" name="id19">Primary package manager transition phase</a></li>
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<li><a class="reference" href="#secondary-package-manager-to-candidate-primary-package-manager-transition" id="id20" name="id20">Secondary package manager to candidate primary package manager transition</a></li>
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<li><a class="reference" href="#third-party-to-other-transition" id="id21" name="id21">Third party to other transition</a></li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li><a class="reference" href="#references" id="id22" name="id22">References</a></li>
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<li><a class="reference" href="#copyright" id="id23" name="id23">Copyright</a></li>
|
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</ul>
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</div>
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<div class="section">
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<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id7" id="status" name="status">Status</a></h1>
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<p>The council rejected this GLEP in favor of starting from a package manager
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API and requiring Gentoo package managers in the tree to support that
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API. (That API is still pending, however.)</p>
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| 328 |
</div>
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<div class="section">
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<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id8" id="abstract" name="abstract">Abstract</a></h1>
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<p>This GLEP describes four classes of package managers. What the requirements for
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them are, and what support they can receive.</p>
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</div>
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<div class="section">
|
| 335 |
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id9" id="motivation" name="motivation">Motivation</a></h1>
|
| 336 |
<p>To set a standard that package managers that seek Gentoo project approval and
|
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support should adhere to.</p>
|
| 338 |
</div>
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<div class="section">
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| 340 |
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id10" id="rationale" name="rationale">Rationale</a></h1>
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| 341 |
<p>Currently Portage is showing its age. The code of Portage does not seem to be
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salvageable for new versions. As of the date of publication, there are two known
|
| 343 |
alternative package managers that claim a level of Portage compatibility. These
|
| 344 |
alternatives are <a class="reference" href="http://paludis.berlios.de/">paludis</a> <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id1" id="id2" name="id2">[1]</a> and <a class="reference" href="http://gentooexperimental.org/~ferringb/bzr/pkgcore/">pkgcore</a> <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id3" id="id4" name="id4">[2]</a>. Before these alternatives are
|
| 345 |
developed further, a set of rules should be created to level the playing field
|
| 346 |
and ensuring that decisions can be made clearly.</p>
|
| 347 |
</div>
|
| 348 |
<div class="section">
|
| 349 |
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id11" id="backwards-compatibility" name="backwards-compatibility">Backwards Compatibility</a></h1>
|
| 350 |
<p>Not a problem for this GLEP. There is no previous standard as the issue did not
|
| 351 |
exist before. This GLEP is to prevent future compatibility issues.</p>
|
| 352 |
</div>
|
| 353 |
<div class="section">
|
| 354 |
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id12" id="categories-of-package-managers" name="categories-of-package-managers">Categories of package managers</a></h1>
|
| 355 |
<p>We distinguish four categories of package managers. While a package manager can
|
| 356 |
transition from one category to another, it can not be in two categories at the
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| 357 |
same time. It can be in a state of transition though.</p>
|
| 358 |
<dl class="docutils">
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| 359 |
<dt><em>Primary Package Manager</em></dt>
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| 360 |
<dd>There is one primary package manager. Currently this position is held by
|
| 361 |
Portage. The primary package manager is assigned by the council and all
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| 362 |
packages in the official tree must be installable by a usable version of the
|
| 363 |
primary package manager.</dd>
|
| 364 |
<dt><em>Candidate Primary Package Managers</em></dt>
|
| 365 |
<dd>A candidate Primary Package Manager does aim, or show an aim, at replacing
|
| 366 |
the current primary package manager. At a point where the package manager is
|
| 367 |
deemed stable a decision must be made whether this package manager should
|
| 368 |
become the new primary package manager. At that point the <a class="reference" href="#primary-package-manager-transition-phase">Primary package
|
| 369 |
manager transition phase</a> starts.</dd>
|
| 370 |
<dt><em>Secondary Package Managers</em></dt>
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| 371 |
<dd><p class="first">A secondary package manager is a package manager that coexists with the
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| 372 |
primary package manager, while not aiming to replace it. Examples of package
|
| 373 |
managers that would fall into this category are:</p>
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<ul class="last simple">
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| 375 |
<li>Experimental package managers. Package managers whose purpose it is to try
|
| 376 |
out new features.</li>
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<li>Focused package managers. For example a package manager that allows the
|
| 378 |
use of RPM formatted binary packages would be an example.</li>
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<li>Alternate package managers. Package managers that aim to coexist with the
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primary package manager. They might for example offer a nicer user
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interface than the primary package manager (e.g. show a cow instead of
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compilation messages).</li>
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</ul>
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</dd>
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| 385 |
<dt><em>Third Party Package Managers</em></dt>
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| 386 |
<dd>A third party package manager is any package manager that lacks recognition
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from Gentoo as being in any other category. A third party package manager may
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or may not have a Gentoo package, but is not supported beyond that.</dd>
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</dl>
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</div>
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<div class="section">
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| 392 |
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id13" id="package-manager-requirements" name="package-manager-requirements">Package manager requirements</a></h1>
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<p>As a package manager is in a state of higher support there are higher
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requirements to it. The purpose of these requirements is to ensure the unity of
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the distribution and the package tree. For this purpose it is needed that there
|
| 396 |
is only one primary package manager. This is from gentoo's perspective. From a
|
| 397 |
user perspective it is perfectly possible to use another package
|
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manager. Candidate primary package managers and secondary package managers are
|
| 399 |
also supported in regards to bugs etc.</p>
|
| 400 |
<div class="section">
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| 401 |
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id14" id="primary-package-manager-requirements" name="primary-package-manager-requirements">Primary package manager requirements</a></h2>
|
| 402 |
<p>The primary package manager is the package manager that sets the standards for
|
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the tree. All ebuilds in the tree must function with the primary package
|
| 404 |
manager. As the primary package manager sets the standard it does not have to
|
| 405 |
maintain compatibility with other package managers. This does not mean that the
|
| 406 |
actual implementation is the standard, but that the maintainers have the ability
|
| 407 |
to define new standards, together with the other involved gentoo projects.</p>
|
| 408 |
<p>The primary package manager does however have the responsibility that it must be
|
| 409 |
very stable. The primary package manager must maintain compatibility with old
|
| 410 |
versions of itself for extended periods of time. This compatibility time is set
|
| 411 |
by the council. The suggested time would be one year from the point that there
|
| 412 |
is a compatible stable version for all supported architectures.</p>
|
| 413 |
<p>Another compatibility requirement for the primary package manager is a limited
|
| 414 |
forward compatibility. It must always be possible to transition from the
|
| 415 |
unstable version of the primary package manager to a stable version. This may be
|
| 416 |
done either by first introducing reading compatibility for a new format and only
|
| 417 |
having write support later. Another way would be the provision of a conversion
|
| 418 |
tool that ensures that the on disk information maintained by the package manager
|
| 419 |
is supported by the stable package manager.</p>
|
| 420 |
<p>The primary package manager maintainers further have the responsibility to allow
|
| 421 |
competition. This means that reasonable patches from the maintainers of
|
| 422 |
secondary or candidate primary package managers must be applied, given that
|
| 423 |
these patches are as independent of that package manager as possible.</p>
|
| 424 |
<p>The primary package manager is maintained on official Gentoo infrastructure,
|
| 425 |
under control of Gentoo developers.</p>
|
| 426 |
</div>
|
| 427 |
<div class="section">
|
| 428 |
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id15" id="candidate-primary-package-manager-requirements" name="candidate-primary-package-manager-requirements">Candidate primary package manager requirements</a></h2>
|
| 429 |
<p>A candidate primary package manager aims to replace the primary package
|
| 430 |
manager. The council is responsible for deciding whether this is done. The
|
| 431 |
requirements are there to ensure that it is actually possible to transition a
|
| 432 |
candidate primary package manager into the primary package manager.</p>
|
| 433 |
<p>First of all, there must exist a transition path. This means that the on disk
|
| 434 |
data of the primary package manager can be used by (or converted to a format
|
| 435 |
usable by) the candidate primary package manager.</p>
|
| 436 |
<p>Second, there must be a test path. It must be possible for the developers to
|
| 437 |
test out the candidate primary package manager on their working systems. This
|
| 438 |
means that the transition path must exist. This also means that there are no
|
| 439 |
serious obstacles for reverting to the current primary package manager. This
|
| 440 |
reverting must also be usable when it is decided that the candidate will not
|
| 441 |
become primary package manager, for example because serious design flaws or bugs
|
| 442 |
were found. Ideally, the Candidate Primary Package Manager and the Primary
|
| 443 |
Package Manager can be installed simultaneously. If not, clear instructions must
|
| 444 |
be provided for both ways of transitioning.</p>
|
| 445 |
<p>Third, there must exist an ebuild test path. It must be possible for package
|
| 446 |
managers to test ebuilds in one tree for both the primary as well as the
|
| 447 |
candidate primary package manager. It is not an issue if this requires a special
|
| 448 |
mode for the candidate primary package manager. It is not an issue either if
|
| 449 |
compatibility can be achieved by having the candidate primary package manager
|
| 450 |
unmerge the package.</p>
|
| 451 |
<p>Fourth, there must be support. This means that the package manager is actively
|
| 452 |
maintained under control of Gentoo. If it is not maintained on Gentoo
|
| 453 |
infrastructure, the means must be there to move the package manager, with its
|
| 454 |
change history, to Gentoo infrastructure. This means that it must be maintained
|
| 455 |
on a Gentoo supported versioning system, or on a version system whose history
|
| 456 |
can be converted to a Gentoo supported versioning system.</p>
|
| 457 |
<p>Fifth, release capabilities. There must exist automated tools that use the
|
| 458 |
candidate primary package manager to create release media that have similar
|
| 459 |
capabilities as those released using the old primary package manager. The exact
|
| 460 |
requirements are determined by the Release Engineering project, but should not
|
| 461 |
be significantly beyond what is currently implemented using the primary package
|
| 462 |
manager.</p>
|
| 463 |
</div>
|
| 464 |
<div class="section">
|
| 465 |
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id16" id="secondary-package-manager-requirements" name="secondary-package-manager-requirements">Secondary package manager requirements</a></h2>
|
| 466 |
<p>A secondary package manager is a package manager that instead of directly aiming
|
| 467 |
at replacing the current primary package manager as primary package manager aims
|
| 468 |
to cooperate with the primary package manager. As such a secondary package
|
| 469 |
manager does not set the standard on the tree, but follows the standard set by
|
| 470 |
the primary package manager.</p>
|
| 471 |
<p>There are two kinds of secondary package managers. The first kind is formed by
|
| 472 |
those that do not maintain their own installed package database, but work with
|
| 473 |
the package database of the primary package manager. While these package
|
| 474 |
managers can put additional information in the database, these entries must
|
| 475 |
remain compatible with the primary package managers. Verification, reference,
|
| 476 |
and deinstallation by the primary package manager must remain functional.</p>
|
| 477 |
<p>The second kind is formed by those package managers that maintain their own
|
| 478 |
package database, or a package database incompatible with the primary package
|
| 479 |
manager. To ensure the secondary role of these package managers the support in
|
| 480 |
the tree for these package managers is provided along with restrictions.</p>
|
| 481 |
<p>The first restriction is that no packages in the tree must rely on the secondary
|
| 482 |
package manager. While packages may provide a level of support (while being
|
| 483 |
compatible with the primary package manager) this may not result in a
|
| 484 |
significant increase of features. If this were allowed, this would mean that
|
| 485 |
while they technically work with the primary package manager, there would be
|
| 486 |
significant incentive to use the secondary package manager. As the use of this
|
| 487 |
secondary package manager disallows the parallel use of the primary package
|
| 488 |
manager, this would result in users using the secondary package manager as their
|
| 489 |
primary package manager.</p>
|
| 490 |
<p>Users are allowed to make their own choices. However by making the tree favour a
|
| 491 |
package manager that is not the primary package manager, this will lead to the
|
| 492 |
secondary package manager becoming the effective primary package manager. As
|
| 493 |
this will be a decision by default instead of a conscious choice by the council,
|
| 494 |
this is an undesirable result.</p>
|
| 495 |
<p>There is one exclusion for the restriction of packages that only work with or
|
| 496 |
have significant improvements with the secondary package manager. That is
|
| 497 |
packages that by their nature are only usable with this secondary package
|
| 498 |
manager. An example would be a graphical front-end to the secondary package
|
| 499 |
manager.</p>
|
| 500 |
<p>If a secondary package manager works along the primary package manager, but by
|
| 501 |
itself does not have the capabilities of becoming a primary package manager the
|
| 502 |
risks of choice by default are lower. As a result, the council could choose to
|
| 503 |
allow the inclusion of packages that work only or significantly better with this
|
| 504 |
secondary package manager. For example at a point where there is a stable,
|
| 505 |
functional, package manager that can handle RPM format packages, the council
|
| 506 |
could decide to include these packages directly in the tree, instead of using
|
| 507 |
wrapper scripts for those packages that are only provided in the RPM
|
| 508 |
format. Such a decision does imply that the maintainers of the primary package
|
| 509 |
manager must take this secondary package manager into account.</p>
|
| 510 |
</div>
|
| 511 |
<div class="section">
|
| 512 |
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id17" id="third-party-package-manager-requirements" name="third-party-package-manager-requirements">Third party package manager requirements</a></h2>
|
| 513 |
<p>A third party package manager is just that. It is a package manager without any
|
| 514 |
support within Gentoo. As there is no control by Gentoo over the package manager
|
| 515 |
this means that there are no requirements on the package manager.</p>
|
| 516 |
<p>This complete lack of control however also translates to the fact that Gentoo
|
| 517 |
can not make package manager specific changes to support this package
|
| 518 |
manager. Package manager specific means that it is possible to request changes
|
| 519 |
that make the tree more independent of the primary package manager. These
|
| 520 |
changes must however be agnostic of the package manager, and only make it easier
|
| 521 |
to have alternative package managers.</p>
|
| 522 |
</div>
|
| 523 |
</div>
|
| 524 |
<div class="section">
|
| 525 |
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id18" id="transition-phases" name="transition-phases">Transition phases</a></h1>
|
| 526 |
<div class="section">
|
| 527 |
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id19" id="primary-package-manager-transition-phase" name="primary-package-manager-transition-phase">Primary package manager transition phase</a></h2>
|
| 528 |
<p>A candidate primary package manager can be chosen to become primary package
|
| 529 |
manager. This can only happen by council decision. This decision can only be
|
| 530 |
made when the candidate primary package manager is stable on all stable
|
| 531 |
architectures. (all architectures except experimental ones). There is a
|
| 532 |
incubation period of at least 3 months before a candidate primary package
|
| 533 |
manager can become the primary package manager.</p>
|
| 534 |
<p>After the decision has been made to replace the primary package manager, the
|
| 535 |
transition phase starts. The use of the old stable package manager must remain
|
| 536 |
supported for a period of 6 months. This means that core packages must be
|
| 537 |
installable by this package manager. Further the possibility to convert the
|
| 538 |
system automatically to the new primary package manager must be available for at
|
| 539 |
least 18 months, but preferably longer (enable installing the new package
|
| 540 |
manager from the old one).</p>
|
| 541 |
<p>During the transition phase packages are allowed in the tree that use the new
|
| 542 |
features of the new primary package manager. While backward compatibility with
|
| 543 |
the previous primary package manager must be maintained a forward compatibility
|
| 544 |
is no longer needed.</p>
|
| 545 |
</div>
|
| 546 |
<div class="section">
|
| 547 |
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id20" id="secondary-package-manager-to-candidate-primary-package-manager-transition" name="secondary-package-manager-to-candidate-primary-package-manager-transition">Secondary package manager to candidate primary package manager transition</a></h2>
|
| 548 |
<p>The transition from secondary package manager to candidate primary package
|
| 549 |
manager is straightforward. The secondary package manager must satisfy all
|
| 550 |
requirements for a candidate primary package manager. At that point its
|
| 551 |
maintainers can announce that they are changing the status to candidate primary
|
| 552 |
package manager. This allows a greater support from Gentoo in achieving that
|
| 553 |
goal.</p>
|
| 554 |
</div>
|
| 555 |
<div class="section">
|
| 556 |
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id21" id="third-party-to-other-transition" name="third-party-to-other-transition">Third party to other transition</a></h2>
|
| 557 |
<p>When a third party package manager wants to transition into one of the other
|
| 558 |
categories (except primary package manager) it must satisfy all requirements for
|
| 559 |
that category.</p>
|
| 560 |
</div>
|
| 561 |
</div>
|
| 562 |
<div class="section">
|
| 563 |
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id22" id="references" name="references">References</a></h1>
|
| 564 |
<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" id="id1" rules="none">
|
| 565 |
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
|
| 566 |
<tbody valign="top">
|
| 567 |
<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id2" name="id1">[1]</a></td><td><a class="reference" href="http://paludis.berlios.de/">http://paludis.berlios.de/</a></td></tr>
|
| 568 |
</tbody>
|
| 569 |
</table>
|
| 570 |
<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" id="id3" rules="none">
|
| 571 |
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
|
| 572 |
<tbody valign="top">
|
| 573 |
<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id4" name="id3">[2]</a></td><td><a class="reference" href="http://gentooexperimental.org/~ferringb/bzr/pkgcore/">http://gentooexperimental.org/~ferringb/bzr/pkgcore/</a></td></tr>
|
| 574 |
</tbody>
|
| 575 |
</table>
|
| 576 |
<table class="docutils footnote" frame="void" id="id5" rules="none">
|
| 577 |
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
|
| 578 |
<tbody valign="top">
|
| 579 |
<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id6" name="id5">[3]</a></td><td><a class="reference" href="http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/">http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/</a></td></tr>
|
| 580 |
</tbody>
|
| 581 |
</table>
|
| 582 |
</div>
|
| 583 |
<div class="section">
|
| 584 |
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id23" id="copyright" name="copyright">Copyright</a></h1>
|
| 585 |
<p>This document is copyright 2006 by Paul de Vrieze and licensed under the
|
| 586 |
<a class="reference" href="http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/">Open Publication License</a> <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id5" id="id6" name="id6">[3]</a>.</p>
|
| 587 |
</div>
|
| 588 |
|
| 589 |
</div>
|
| 590 |
<div class="footer">
|
| 591 |
<hr class="footer" />
|
| 592 |
<a class="reference" href="glep-0049.txt">View document source</a>.
|
| 593 |
Generated on: 2006-10-10 20:23 UTC.
|
| 594 |
Generated by <a class="reference" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/">Docutils</a> from <a class="reference" href="http://docutils.sourceforge.net/rst.html">reStructuredText</a> source.
|
| 595 |
|
| 596 |
</div>
|
| 597 |
</body>
|
| 598 |
</html>
|
| 599 |
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