RPM 4.12.0 released

[Posted September 16, 2014 by corbet]

Version 4.12.0 of the RPM package manager is out. New features include weak dependencies ("suggests," "recommends," "supplements," and "enhances" tags), a new rpm2archive utility to turn a package into a tar archive, lots of internal improvements, the removal of the "collections" feature, and, for those who think it is wise, the ability to put files larger than 4GB into a package.

RPM 4.12.0 released

Posted Sep 16, 2014 13:47 UTC (Tue) by epa (subscriber, #39769) [Link] (2 responses)

Can someone remind me how the various versions of RPM relate to each other and whether the dust has settled on "RPM 5" and so on?

RPM 4.12.0 released

Posted Sep 16, 2014 13:51 UTC (Tue) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link]

Wikipedia has a reasonable summary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RPM_Package_Manager#Forks

RPM 4.12.0 released

Posted Sep 16, 2014 14:16 UTC (Tue) by jengelh (guest, #33263) [Link]

The RPM5 project forked off in (as WP tells us) 2007 from rpm.
I really can't remember any significant dust. Distros made their choices, some were swayed by RPM5, others stayed with rpm.org, and then went along with their business. Because there really are "more important debates", like the systemd one ;-)

RPM 4.12.0 released

Posted Sep 16, 2014 15:53 UTC (Tue) by moggers87 (guest, #86573) [Link] (2 responses)

The lack of soft dependencies has caused more than a few headaches for me over the years (some packagers put hard dependencies on everything, others skip out on everything "optional"). Looking forward to RPM-based distros taking advantage of this!

RPM 4.12.0 released

Posted Sep 16, 2014 16:22 UTC (Tue) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (1 responses)

To be fair, several RPM based distributions have been using soft dependencies for a very long time. They just use some distro specific patches to RPM. So the hope is not for them to merely start using soft dependencies but for them to use it consistently across distributions.

RPM 4.12.0 released

Posted Sep 17, 2014 3:55 UTC (Wed) by mcatanzaro (subscriber, #93033) [Link]

As far as I know, the only notable RPM-based distros are Mageia, SUSE distros, and Red Hat distros. So only Red Hat distros lacked soft dependencies.

I wonder if and when these will be allowed in Fedora packages....

RPM 4.12.0 released

Posted Sep 17, 2014 10:59 UTC (Wed) by kloczek (guest, #6391) [Link] (6 responses)

Seems rpm development is going nowhere.

Instead minimizing number of problems caused by %pre/%post instal scripts by introducing set well known and tested actions rpm provides more and more mechanisms which makes package management less deterministic.

RPM 4.12.0 released

Posted Sep 17, 2014 18:31 UTC (Wed) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link] (1 responses)

If you really think it is plausible to eliminate or greatly reduce %pre and %post scripts by adding 'set well known and well tested actions', you are living in a dream world.

(Or, perhaps -- if you mean, say, triggers -- you're living in the past, since RPM has had those for a while.)

RPM 4.12.0 released

Posted Sep 18, 2014 11:43 UTC (Thu) by kloczek (guest, #6391) [Link]

I'm not thinking that it is possible.
Look on IPS. This packaging system has only actions and you cannot use pre/post install scripts.

RPM 4.12.0 released

Posted Sep 17, 2014 18:39 UTC (Wed) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (3 responses)

Windows tried to do that with MSI. It failed.

RPM 4.12.0 released

Posted Sep 18, 2014 11:44 UTC (Thu) by kloczek (guest, #6391) [Link] (2 responses)

Who cares what Windows does?

RPM 4.12.0 released

Posted Sep 18, 2014 15:29 UTC (Thu) by zlynx (guest, #2285) [Link]

Anyone who has to work with computers in the real world.

Windows is also a great place to find examples of what works and what does not.

RPM 4.12.0 released

Posted Sep 18, 2014 17:46 UTC (Thu) by mpr22 (subscriber, #60784) [Link]

The wise person not only draws lessons from their own mistakes so as not to make them again, but also seeks out information about the mistakes of others for much the same purpose. (Wisdom, of course, is not in as plentiful a supply as one might hope.)