Package management?

[Stefan Sperling]

On Wed, Sep 06, 2006 at 10:42:38PM +0100, Toby Smithe wrote:
> We would need a method to convert the current Makefiles to the new
> system. The best approach, surely, would have this task automated.

No - this would be the most impractical approach.
Computers are stupid. You'd have to convert the Makefiles manually.
There's too much diversity in the Makefiles in our tree.

By the way, if we managed to add *exactly* 11000 more Makefiles
to our tree, we've have a lucky number:

[stsp at ted ~/dslinux/src]$ find . -name Makefile | wc -l
    1345

> I don't know enough about buildroot, say - if we were to implement that,
> to know if that is possible.

If you really want to go for buildroot, I guess the best way
is to start a new buildroot fork from scratch, integrating
dslinux-related stuff by hand, effectively breaking the history
of the dslinux tree. That should be less work than trying to nail
buildroot onto uClinux. 

I still think that sticking some hooks into the uClinux Makefiles
to generate ipkgs would be less painful. The question is how to do
this in detail, and how to limit conflicts with upstream as much as
possible. I guess it should mainly be implemented in new files.
Modifications of upstream Makefiles may be inevitable, but should
be kept as small as possible.

I am still fine with the current situation by the way - I don't
see much reason to change the build system just for the ram build.

But I won't stand in the way of good solutions for a package system
either. In fact, I (and others, likely, too) would like to see much
more consistently active contributers to the project in general, so
new ideas (and revival of old ideas) are always good and welcome :)

-- 
stefan
http://stsp.in-berlin.de                                 PGP Key: 0xF59D25F0