RPM Loader Script - V0.1

[Ralph Stickley]

> 
> Here's what I am doing. I'd like PeeWeeLinux to become a platform that can
> be build entirely from sources. My goal would be a distibution where you
> can run a single script to build all packages from sources.
> 

?? 
If the optimized list of files for an RPM are manually generated, the package
files created by pwl_rpmloader *should* be close in size to the manually
compiled files (+ 10% maybe).

The problem is removing dependencies (link ncurses, pam) - these have to
be "compiled out".
??
Is that a reasonable summary ?? Hmmmm...

If we have to use the source tars (w/o RH patches) to get rid of
the pam secuirity and whatever else, thats no problem for me. However,
actually compiling the programs I'd rather not do if I don't have to...
but then, I'm not counting bytes here, only Mega bytes....A truely
memory restrained embedded system might be more concerned with size.

> Still the question is if PeeWeeLinux should be based on Redhat source RPMS
> or generic tar balls and patches of packes.
> 
> Until then I am building packages more for my own consumption. 

Yep, and as more and more people build packages (Hey, my package is 
smaller than YOUR package!) the package sources will continue to grow
in number and shrink in size :-)

> Makes them pretty big! Your X is 16M? 

Ummm...well, its only 10M now that I don't have 3 copies of all the lib 
files (somewhere along the line, I didn't do a cp -ax, and the links weren't
copied, the files were duplicated)...my X11 package file is getting smaller!

> Yup, it's a painstaking manual
> process. Scripting would be a bit of a pain since you would need a custom
> script for each package. It makes reproducing the package easier. But
> then, that why I did PWL in the very beginning, so I didn't have to do the
> manual prosess of selecting and stripping executables and checking for
> dependencies every single time I build a project.
> 

The key here is that this *painful process* need only be done once...
Is it time to start to ask for help / Announce Pee Wee to a 
bunch of news groups /mailing lists ?? (Pee Wee Comes out of the closet!)

Maybe after I integrate the package stuff and the ram disk stuff...and
we get a few projects working...of course, we can always come up with 
more features...We need a marketing guy to say STOP, SHIP it NOW!:-)

"Software programs are never finished...only abandoned"


> PeeWeeLinux has met it's original goal of why I build it. I still think
> that it's worthwhile to develop it further by automating the build from
> sources once the original build has been done. That would also make it
> possible to establish guidelines for contributed packages and what's
> expected from them....
> 
Hmmm... a true "raw" distribution...sounds tough, but if we have patch
files, ftp sites...doesn't sound too hard (just send me your patches!).

> > > > To Do: load the source rpm, install it, copy the source files
> > > > and compile everything.  Then copy the binaries from the SRC 
> > > > directory into the pkg.files directory.....
> > > 
> > > Yup, that would be the best way of doing it. Or... download the original
> > > sources and compile from scratch. Then make a build script and a patch
> > > file... Otherwise it might get messy if we build some packages from rpm
> > > and others from tar...
> > > 
> > Hey, if you have a link to each of the source files...we can ftp them
> > over instead of using the RH CD...not bad...I guess RH does some 
> > changes from the originals, not sure of other advantages of ftp vs RH
> RPM...
> 
> The changes Redhat did to the Redhat RPMS are in the form of patches.
> Sooo, it's easy to build whatever you like from the source rpm because the
> original tar ball is still there (plus a number patches, some redhat some
> not).
> 
> I guess one way to build packages would be to take the source rpm and
> extract the original tarball and non-redhat specific patches... Then keep
> these as the PWL sources and build our packages from the tar files...
> 
> Or use rpm and build redhat rpms for every package that's not part of
> RedHat (elvis-tiny, busybox, tinylogin, to name a few that instantly come
> to mind)
> 
Not bad...then we don't have to stop at RH, but all the rpm stuff still
works..

> The nice thin about Redhat rpms is they compile as is. With orignal tar
> balls quite often they have to be 'fixed' before they will compile....
> 
Geeze, thats handy!

> > Anyhow, I guess this is the "idiots tool for package building" (just 
> > my speed :-) your packages are still the best! But, Hey, if you 
> > have 128MB flash disk...
> 
> Almost fit a Gnome workstation on that sucker... Just have to rmember not
> to use swap space on flash then :) 
> 
I'd be happy to get fvwm2 working!!!

> BTW, someone asked me that question... seriously! If 32MB of RAM isn't
> enough, couldn't we use a 64MB flash drive and make a 32MB swap partition?
> Interesting thought, eh...?  Ouch... :)
> 
Maybe they could add a hard disk for the swap space ?;-)

Later,
Ralph
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