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Intent to package: rpm-4.1


Based on some of the recent work of Yann Crausaz[1] and Max Bowsher[2],
and inspired by a recent comment[3] from Chuck Wilson, I've decided to
begin once again a project[4] I had proposed nearly two years ago[5]. My
immediate plan is to start with Yann's and Max's work and deliver an RPM
package in the next few days that can be installed by setup.exe; this
also means I'm volunteering to be the maintainer (I hope this is OK with
Yann and Max.)

I already have rpm compiling (using the patches developed by Yann and
Max), and all I have to finish up are the actual packages, setup.hint,
and write the Cygwin-specific readme.

Chuck expressed[6] his preference for having RPM dynamically link popt and
db4. I propose to do the port in the same manner I did the Ghostscript
port: get an initial version working first and then, via incremental
improvements, eventually deliver a binary that dynamically link its
subordinate libraries.

I prefer this approach because we can have something useful really
soon, while we continue working on improving the port[7]. This first
version will also buy us some time, as I anticipate I will have to
contact the upstream maintainers and get their help in modifying the RPM
configuration stuff to allow dynamic linking (if it doesn't already.)

My goal is to eventually complete a reference implementation[8], /not/
a production-ready version (at least, not right away.) The working
/reference/ implementation will be one that we can examine and analyze,
before we try integrating RPM support into setup.exe.


Footnotes:

[1] - http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2003-03/msg01826.html
[2] - http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2003-03/msg00506.html
[3] - http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2003-03/msg02039.html
[4],[8] - http://www.helixdigital.com/~alcocer/rpm-installer/
[5] - The only reason I didn't complete this work was due to the rather
severe (at least for me) economic downturn my company experienced as a
result of 9/11 and the dot-com bubble bursting. I offer this more as an
explanation, and not as an excuse.
[6] - http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2003-03/msg00526.html
[7] - ESR's rule #7 from C&B, http://catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/ar01s04.html

-- 
Dario Alcocer -- Sr. Software Developer, Helix Digital Inc.
alcocer at helixdigital dot com -- http://www.helixdigital.com


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