yum vs. apt

[Panu Matilainen]

On Wed, 11 Feb 2004, David L Norris wrote:

> On Wed, 2004-02-11 at 13:14, Sturla Holm Hansen wrote:
> > Hi all, just wanted to ask what the difference between yum and apt are?
> >...
> > Do they do the same thing, are there advantages/disadvantages?
> 
> Some info from Warren Togami:
> http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2004-February/msg00517.html
> 
> Here's a short summary of the thread that I hope is accurate...
> 
> YUM Advantages:
>   Better mirror and failover support.
>   Supports multilib on dual 32-bit/64-bit systems (x86_64, PPC?, etc)
>   (My opinion: YUM repositories are much easier to create on demand.)
> YUM Disadvantages:
>   Wastes considerable bandwidth downloading header (.hdr) files.
>   Large updates take forever. (4 hours to update my laptop to rawhide)
>   Isn't compatible with APT.

What on earth does "(not) compatible with apt" mean? If you point yum 
& apt to same set of repositories there's no problem using them both on a 
same system interchangeably. Not compatible as in "can't use the same 
repository metadata" is true at the moment (though work is being done to 
resolve that issue)

> 
> APT Advantages:
>   Quickly calculates dependencies (seconds vs. hours for yum).

Uhh, please... its seconds vs minutes, not hours. And even the "50 minutes
to calculate dependencies" mentioned in Warrens mail is under specific set
of conditions, not something that happens for your average "yum install
foo" operation. For a normal package installatation there's no much of a
speed difference. For big upgrade (like RHL 9 -> Fedora Core 1)
apt wins hands down but still lets keep the facts straight...

>   Can install and resolve dependencies on non-repository packages.
>   Can remove entire trees of interdependent packages.
>   Automated package rebuilding from SRPMS.
> APT Disadvantages:
>   Doesn't have multilib support.
>   Refuses to function if you install/erase any package with --nodeps.

..until you fix the situation.

	- Panu -