Distro update methods [was RE: market continues to dive!]

[Jeremy Fowler]

Usually you have to rebuild the rpm in order to add a configure option that
requires rebuilding the binaries from source. There is no other way since all
that comes in an rpm package is the binary files, documentation, and possibly
some example config files. If all rpms were binary+source then reconfiguring
packages would be easier, but the package size would be huge. Think of rpms as a
binary package installer, that only installs what is generated at `make install`
time. Everything else is done with the source rpm.

It's not that hard to rebuild srpms and add configure options. Just download the
srpm file, find out what the configure option you need and use rpm to rebuild
from source.

rpm -bb --with=xml php-something.src.rpm

And after it's all compiled, your new rpm is placed in /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386
(or whatever you arch is)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-kclug at marauder.illiana.net
> [mailto:owner-kclug at marauder.illiana.net]On Behalf Of Michael
> Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2002 2:09 PM
> To: Brian Densmore
> Cc: kclug at kclug.org
> Subject: Re: Distro update methods [was RE: market continues to dive!]
>
>
> > You seriously need to check out gentoo. It use a portage system, similar
> > to the ports method used by FreeBSD. And if that doesn't suit you, you
> > should check out FreeBSD. I didn't like it when I tried it, but it was a
> > long time ago. But many people do like it. It is a good OS, with a good
> > updating methodology. I really wish Linux had one, other than portage.
> > Don't get me wrong, I really like portage, but Linux needs one that can
> > do the same thing for compiled packages. So if you want to make your own
> > please take the portage system as your base. ;')
>
> Gentoo looks promising but it seems to harsh for my old P120 type boxes so
> I guess I agree it needs some work in the way of binary packages. Most of
> my complaints are in the area of what a pain it is to make deb or rpm
> packages that properly adjust themselves after relevant software is
> installed. For example if I have a PHP package installed already but add a
> expat package it doesn't automaticlly ask if I want to reload the PHP
> package with XML support turned on.
>
> I've used FreeBSD and it's okay but not really better than Linux (in some
> ways it is.. in some ways it's not..) so I typically don't use it at home
> as I dislike the BSD license.
>
>
>