[ale] Upgrading to Apache 2 on RH 7.3

James P. Kinney III jkinney at localnetsolutions.com
Tue Sep 16 09:17:50 EDT 2003


The purpose of the rpm packaging is to make sure that when a binary is
installed, it works. As the plethora of libraries grows, each system
becomes more and more complicated. Binary A compiled on machine B with
lib set C won't run on machine D with lib set E. RPM prevents the
mistake.

Anyone who wants to drop in binaries wildly into a running computer
system that they downloaded of the 'net may as well stick with a Mac or
Microsoft as they are seriously violating EVERYTHING about system
security. The rpm system does include a process of verifying the digital
signature of the package developer/releasing group. That should be used
every time.

The package systems that have been developed all do the job they were
intended to do. Some have more features in the design than others. RPM
is designed to make sure that the RedHat system works well with RedHat
binaries. Yes, there are other binaries available that do not ship with
RedHat. If those are to be used, they need to be built for the RedHat
system they are going to be installed on. Sometimes, the program author
does the work for you and builds rpm's for different releases.
Othertimes, they just release a src.rpm. That is a good thing. Now, when
the build process is done, the package is tailored to your system.

Keep in mind that the rpm system is supposed to keep the system
consistent and stable. In that respect, it works very well. Besides, if
this stuff was EASY, we'd have every Mac and M$ luser whining about "how
do I ..." and "why doesn't it work like...".  ;)

Computer systems should not be made idiot proof.
A) We are always making more and better idiots.
B) How many idiot do we _really_ want running computers?

On Mon, 2003-09-15 at 23:51, synco gibraldter wrote:
> forgive the forward, as the reply-to thing didn't go to the list
> 
> ------- Forwarded message follows -------
> From:           	synco gibraldter <synco at xodarap.net>
> To:             	Howard Fore <mylists at hofo.com>
> Subject:        	Re: [ale] Upgrading to Apache 2 on RH 7.3
> Date sent:      	Mon, 15 Sep 2003 23:25:29 -0400
> 
> i hate to play devil's advocate (yet again), but with a source install
> time of ~ 5 mins, do rpm's really offer any advantage whatsoever over
> installing from source?
> 
> i install everything from source and i never have problems with
> dependencies or upgrades or any mess like that.  i'm admittedly very
> weak on my rpm knowledge, so i'm not trying to be a jackass by asking
> this question -- i really just don't see the advantages to rpm's (and
> i can think of a few disadvantages).
> 
> holla.
> 
> ------- End of forwarded message -------
> 
> --    synco gibraldter
> --    atlanta, ga
> --    synco at xodarap.net
> --    key id: 0xC5117E0A
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
-- 
James P. Kinney III          \Changing the mobile computing world/
CEO & Director of Engineering \          one Linux user         /
Local Net Solutions,LLC        \           at a time.          /
770-493-8244                    \.___________________________./
http://www.localnetsolutions.com

GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
<jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7
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