From: eric@sparrow.vgernet.net (Eric Buddington)
Subject: pathmaker: simple packaging system (new)
Date: Tue, 17 Feb 1998 16:14:21 GMT

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pathmaker is an elegant and simple packaging system
comprised mainly of a small Perl script.

The basic principle is not new: store each package
in its own directory subtree (thus avoiding many
name conflicts) and create a forest of symlinks
in one central directory to make access easy.

The perl script 'pathmaker.pl' creates such a tree.

This system works very cleanly, especially with
GNU-like packages that permit clean installation
in any location.

Major design features:
        - Allows multiple versions of a package to coexist.
          Users can individually select which version to use.
        - Allows multiple architectures to coexist, while
          sharing architecture-independant data.
        - No significant runtime overhead (one extra symlink)
        - Easily accomodates binaries, include files, man
          pages, and libraries
        - Packages are fundamentally orthogonal: adding
          or removing one can't muck with the files of
          another
        - Many packages can install directly from source
          into their destination directories - no intermediate
          package formats. Packages can be easily and safely
          shared as tar files.

Limitations:
        - No provisions for dependencies between packages

Released under the GNU General Public License.

Available at
http://www.con.wesleyan.edu/~eric/packagesys/pathmaker.html

Share and Enjoy.

Eric Buddington <ebuddington@wesleyan.edu>
North Adams, MA



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