Smartrpm was (Re: Fedora Core 4)

[Gustavo Niemeyer]

Greetings Jeff,

> I hope you read my contribution to the thread on -devel-list.  But if
> you don't i'd like to point out

I think so, but I'm back from vacation this week, and trying to
work out the backlog, so I'm sorry for any delays.

[...]
> concerned that a novice user with little experience with rpms won't
> have enough information to cancel the operation and similar operations
> if there is a packaging error.

As I mentioned in the other message, you're looking for a debug tool
and not for a dependency solver. I'll be glad to exchange ideas with
you and create a special "debugging mode" for Smart for distribution
maintainers to use during development period, if that's considered
an important feature.

> Let me construct for you a simple hypothetical setup of channels based
> on Core 3 and show how it could help prevent the wireless-tools
> packaging problem.
> 
> Lets start with just the Core channels:
> 
> Core3os:  The channel for fc3 os, 
>   this channel explicit states as a matter of policy that it is
> self-consistent and that it
>   requires no dependances from anwhere else. And conflicts between
[...]

That kind of "policy tool" is an excelent idea, and very easily done
with what Smart currently offers. Contact me if you need help in
building something like this.

PS. You mentioned your message was unfinished, so I hope I was able
    to follow your intentions correctly.

-- 
Gustavo Niemeyer
http://niemeyer.net