upgrade

[Jack Coates]

On Wed, 2002-11-13 at 19:40, Collins wrote:
> On 13 Nov 2002 18:59:44 -0500 Joe Klemmer <klemmerj at webtrek.com>
> wrote:
<snip>
> 
> My past experience with RPM has been that this even more frequently
> means that the RPM was not developed for your particular distro. 
> LSB/FSB or no, every distro tailors the system a little differently,
> and even though your RPM database correctly describes your system,
> some new foreign RPMs just can't find libraries that are really
> installed.  That's the major grief with RPM.  
> 
> OTH, most tarballs use a standard ./configure, and if you can't find a
> library automatically, you can pass a switch to set the path to that
> library.  You can probably do something similar by tinkering with the
> RPM, but that's more akin to waving chicken bones.
> 

It's actually very simple -- download and install the source rpm, edit
the .spec file, and build a new RPM. I went on a big anti-rpm kick early
this year and went looking for something better, but after trying and
working with OpenBSD, NetBSD, Slackware, Debian, and Gentoo I am
thoroughly disgusted with the lot of them and back in love with RPM,
particularly the verify function.

Everyone's needs are different though, and I'm glad that the others
exist. A Slackware or Gentoo system is just the ticket for a dedicated
single-purpose box that needs to be small and fast, and Debian is a good
choice for the auto-updated IT desktop. I cannot stand *BSD, though both
of them are certainly more pleasant to work with than Solaris.
-- 
Jack Coates
Monkeynoodle: A Scientific Venture...