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Diffstat (limited to 'community/gsoc/project_ideas/package_manager.mdwn')
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diff --git a/community/gsoc/project_ideas/package_manager.mdwn b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/package_manager.mdwn new file mode 100644 index 00000000..23304f6b --- /dev/null +++ b/community/gsoc/project_ideas/package_manager.mdwn @@ -0,0 +1,51 @@ +[[!meta copyright="Copyright © 2008, 2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc."]] + +[[!meta license="""[[!toggle id="license" text="GFDL 1.2+"]][[!toggleable +id="license" text="Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this +document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or +any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant +Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license +is included in the section entitled +[[GNU Free Documentation License|/fdl]]."]]"""]] + +[[!meta title="Hurdish Package Manager for the GNU System"]] + +Most GNU/Linux systems use pretty sophisticated package managers, to ease the +management of installed software. These keep track of all installed files, and +various kinds of other necessary information, in special databases. On package +installation, deinstallation, and upgrade, scripts are used that make all kinds +of modifications to other parts of the system, making sure the packages get +properly integrated. + +This approach creates various problems. For one, *all* management has to be +done with the distribution package management tools, or otherwise they would +loose track of the system state. This is reinforced by the fact that the state +information is stored in special databases, that only the special package +management tools can work with. + +Also, as changes to various parts of the system are made on certain events +(installation/deinstallation/update), managing the various possible state +transitions becomes very complex and bug-prone. + +For the official (Hurd-based) GNU system, a different approach is intended: +making use of Hurd [[translators|hurd/translator]] -- more specifically their +ability to present existing data in a different form -- the whole system state +will be created on the fly, directly from the information provided by the +individual packages. The visible system state is always a reflection of the +sum of packages installed at a certain moment; it doesn't matter how this state +came about. There are no global databases of any kind. (Some things might +require caching for better performance, but this must happen transparently.) + +The core of this approach is formed by [[hurd/translator/stowfs]], which +creates a traditional Unix directory structure from all the files in the +individual package directories. But this only handles the lowest level of +package management. Additional mechanisms are necessary to handle stuff like +dependencies on other packages. + +The goal of this task is to create these mechanisms. + +Possible mentors: Ben Asselstine (bing) + +Exercise: Make some improvement to any of the existing Hurd translators. +Especially those in [hurdextras](http://www.nongnu.org/hurdextras/) are often +quite rudimentary, and it shouldn't be hard to find something to improve. |