discuss: Versioning of HOWTO tar.gz packages
Subject:
Re: Versioning of HOWTO tar.gz packages
From:
Dan Armak ####@####.####
Date:
28 Jul 2001 21:44:42 -0000
Message-Id: <01072900454809.04135@localhost>
On Sunday 29 July 2001 00:26, you wrote:
> Dan Armak ####@####.#### writes:
>
> Sorry for asking, but...
>
> We package the HOWTOs here, at Conectiva.
> We use the versions available at LDP at the time we're creating the
> package.
>
> Rsync is a reliable tool to check for new versions of documents.
Using rsync/cvs/cvsup etc. as ways of fetching the sources (documents in this
case) for our packages (called ebuilds in Gentoo Linux) is on the todo list,
put probably won't be implemented for some time (maybe not until the next
vresion), as it requires several design decisions. In the meanwhile, we must
stick to FTP and/or HTTP.
>
> Also, what is causing you problems to create your own set of packages
> with a different name? Tar preserves information such as UID/GID and
> date. You can use it directly from the LDP tarball.
This was one of the solutions I proposed. I can't use the date of the tar
file itself, I need a date of a file inside the tar. Would HOWTO-INDEX be OK?
Can you guarantee it is always updated (since we're chacking mtimes) when the
tar is updated?
As for your questions, again, there are design problems, as the Portage
system likes to know what version of a package it is installing before it
actually downloads it, and to check the files against an MD5 checksum before
extracting them. However, these are our problems and you shouldn't need to
think about them.
>
>
> On the other hand, I agree with you that some versioning scheme would
> be good. BUT, IIRC, this tarball is generated often, so it should
> always be trusted as "the latest version". If it is so, there's no
> need for versioning or inserting the date it was generated. Simply
> download and use it.
That's just the problem. If we don't have e.g. timestamps in the filename, we
don't know whther the mirrored version, or the local version, is the latest.
Although we might check if the online version differs from the local one. But
Internet connections aren't always available during installation.
Another idea is implementing reverse checksum lookup - determine the
version/timestamp from a checksum database.
--
So, I'd like you to confirm that HOWTO-INDEX exists in all archives of all
formats (I only checked for html) and that its mtime is updated whenever the
archive is repackaged.
Another thing: how can I be informed whenever the file is updated? This is
necesary to maintain a checksum database. If I only update it e.g. once a
week I'll miss some versions. Is there a way to automate this? This is
probably not so important, but it could be useful.
Thank you for your assistance,
--
Dan Armak
Gentoo Linux Developer
Matan, Israel
