Re: Gnome retrival system.

[Yoni Elhanani <biggo netvision net il>]

I'm sorry if I got misunderstood.
>From the chain "Yet another newbie" I have detected a problem that
people have with RPMs.
This software is no aimed to help the build of RPM, in that case I'm
REALLY clueless.
It will aim to help the user find a suitible RPM for his needs.

> I don't understand.  There are many problems people have installing GNOME,
> but I don't see how a retriever app helps any of them.
>   * Top of the list of install problems is that GNOME requires a lot of
>     supporting libraries and programs which are missing or outdated in
>     most current distributions.  Also, the process of getting all these in
>     place is perhaps not as well documented as it should be.

Basicly this is where I intend to help,
Get every RPM that is needed after it checks for existing packages.
(ofcourse, GTK+ is needed but its usualy supplied for gimp, atleast on
redhat anyway)
It will first check all RPMs, then check which are the RPMs needed for
the basic gnome to work, then it gets them and install them (rpm -i ...)
then you can choose other packages (gnome-games or gEdit for example)
and install them too.

>   * The distributed RPMs are both out of date and imperfect.
>   * The spec files on CVS are imperfect
>   * We're still in development, and sometimes the tarballs don't compile
>     under unexpected circumstances
>   * The anonymous CVS servers sometimes lag more than they should,
>     restricting access to bugfixes
> 

I cannot help in this area, but I saw posts from people that are trying
to help with the actual build of the RPM.

> > It will retrieve your gnome apps (as long as you got gtk+ and
> > gnome-libs, ofcourse).
> > It will rpm them,
> 
> What do you mean "it will rpm them"?  Usually this means "taking source
> code and making it into both source and binary RPMs", but later on you
> seem to be talking as if the RPMs are there before you run the program.

Sorry if i got misunderstood, i meant installed via RPM. (rpm -i ...)
 
> > check if there are newer versions, check for
> > depenedcies, and other features one would except from such utility.

that is the "feature" list.
when you try to download, lets say gnome-games, it will download
gnome-libs first if you dont already have it, thing like that.

 
> If you are compiling your own RPMs, these need to be done beforehand, not
> after the fact.  If you are using premade RPMs, these should be done
> automatically by the rpm program.

I think it will, unless i can find a library that will RPM my stuff for
me.
(is there any, maybe i got one and i dont know?)
 
> > However, since I'm not familiar with RPM and gnome packages and
> > dependencies, I would like some pointers and suggestions from you all.
> 
> The best way to get familiar with RPM is to read Maximum RPM, available in
> postscript form from RPM's website (http://www.rpm.org).  Warning, it's a
> big book.

All I need is how to quesry info, find dependecies, install and upgrade.
 
> > Also, when this thing is done, I will need to have a site that can host
> > the database so people will know what are the newest packages around.
> > I also hope that by the time it's done there will be RPMs to [almost]
> > every availible package.
> 
> Have you looked at rpmfind?  It does everything you refer to above
> except actually building the RPM.  It already has a database online
> (rpmfind.net, hosted by w3.org).  It already mirrors the GNOME RPMs from
> the FTP site.

It does?
I havnt looked there for ages...
Anyway if it has a list of all packages in gnome (including externals
such as gIDE) complete with dependenices and description, it will be
very cool.
However rpmfind does not inspect your system and tells you what you
need, then installs it. this is very useful for installing outside gnome
apps too, as i said, such as gEdit or gIDE. Nobody will have to search
for these anywhere (although freshmeat provides an easy search method)
but just to click and it will get them via anonymous FTP from the host
site. 
 
however - if my program is useless or can be substituted, please let me
know so I wont work for nothing...

-- 

There are no big words, just little people.