Fedora Project launches Pre-Extras

[Dag Wieers]

On Sat, 18 Dec 2004, Jeff Spaleta wrote:

> On Sat, 18 Dec 2004 11:58:45 +0100, nodata <fedora at nodata.co.uk> wrote:
> > An rpm tool doesn't care about the filename, so why remove it?
> 
> You have missed the point entirely.   The filaname for an rpm is
> typically constructed from a number of header tags as part of the
> build process. The distrotags that are being used arent just in the
> filename they are in the RELEASE tag. You can have this sort of
> information in the filename without having it in the RELEASE tag.
> Maybe you don't understand, the rpm tool does care about what is in
> the RELEASE tag, because the release tag is used during version
> comparisons when you want to decide what is newer or older for
> updates.

Jeff, I know you didn't read the whole thread, but let me give you a 
summary:

The current scheme has the following advantages:

 + It does not require a change to RPM (and works for _all_ distributions)

 + It does not require a change to other RPM based tools like 
   Yum/Apt/up2date/smart

 + It allows the user to recognize the vendor:

   + from the filename (ls)
   + from the package-list output (rpm -qa)
   + from the output of tools like Yum/Apt/up2date/smart

 + It allows the user to recognize what distribution it was build for

   + from the filename (ls)
   + from the package-list output (rpm -qa)
   + from the output of tools like Yum/Apt/up2date/smart

 + It enables users to do file manipulations based on the filename

 + It allows people to build trust for packages because the source becomes 
   visible (this works in both ways, if a package is good or bad)

 + It does not intervene with version comparison in a dramatic way (as 
   the release tag only makes sense in a single vendor namespace anyway)


Seth calls it branding, which is a term that disregards all these 
advantages.

PS Can you please not reply with paragraphs that span my whole terminal 
window as I tend to skim these anyway. Please stick to the point.

--   dag wieers,  dag at wieers.com,  http://dag.wieers.com/   --
[all I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power]