I want to thank you all for setting me straight on tar and rpm. However I
really don't give a damn about all of this. Though someone may care. I was
only looking to make my life easier by using rpm's so I will try to do this
conversion on my own. I was just hoping to save a couple of days work :(
Again thanks.
Mike M.
Bryan-TheBS-Smith wrote:
> edoc wrote:
> > TAR is an archiving methodology that contains its own unique archiving
> > utility?
>
> Tar is an age-old (think '70s) archiving utility. TAR = Tape
> ARchiver. Using UNIX's built-in redirection/piping capabilities,
> and various options in more recent versions, you can redirect its
> output to a file. Numerous program support its format, although
> there are several versions and not all implementations support all
> its features.
>
> For instance, Tar has some most excellent corruption recovery
> routines. So if you have a corruption in the middle of your file,
> it can usually recover most of the files after that point. Now
> WinZip's Tar compatibility does *NOT* support nost of these
> routines. In fact, besides not implementing them, it doesn't even
> both to tell you there was a corruption! This leads many Windows
> users to label Tar as a poor archiver which is simply not true.
>
> Okay, now I'm getting on a tangent. ;-PPP
>
> > RPM is an archiving methodology that uses CPIO as its archiving utility?
>
> No, RPM is a packaging methodology. Outside of the Windows world
> (and even increasingly in the Windows world, thanx to people like
> ActiveState ;-), you _never_ install software via executable. It is
> dangerous and a prime target for trojan horses. Executables
> _should_ be packaged in a format that is not just a simple archive
> of the files, but has all kinds of OS/version-specific information,
> dependency/version checking (so you don't have conflicts, etc...),
> checksum/tampering detection (e.g., MD5) and other details. The
> only executable file used in installation is the controlled
> packaging software itself.
>
> CPIO (copy I/O) is just another archiver. RPM uses CPIO as its
> archiving format. In fact, as you'll find with a lot of legacy UNIX
> utilities, many are used for things never designed, but quite useful
> thanx to UNIX's flexible file handling routines.
>
> [ Side Note: TheBS's UNIX Rule #1 (which you'll learn, there are
> three ;-): _Everything_ in UNIX is a file! ].
>
> Even ISO9660, the file format of CD-ROMs, can also be considered an
> archive format. Using mkisofs, you can make archives as well -- and
> then burn them to CD. In fact, I'm writing a program called "car"
> that is a CD-ROM ARchiver with Tar-like syntax.
>
> [ Side Note: This "project" originally started out as a backup
> script called "back2cd" that I wrote for Steve Litt. It should
> allow you to backup between 1-2GB of data to a CD-ROM in a way you
> can directly access when you want to restore a file. You simply use
> the script, and then use your normal burning software to burn the
> resulting ISO image (be it cdrecord on UNIX or CD Creator or Nero's
> package on Windows). You can find here:
> http://smithconcepts.com/files/scripts/back2cd.tcsh ]
>
> Okay, now I'm really getting on tangents.
>
> I guess the best way to explain this is by explaining it with
> Windows terms. E.g., PKWare's Zip is both an archiver and
> compression format using PKZip as the program. Newer InstallShield
> versions can output an .inst (I believe that's the extension?)
> "package" that is basically an self-installing .exe without the
> executable part.
>
> -- TheBS
>
> --
> Bryan "TheBS" Smith mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org chat:thebs413
> Engineer AbsoluteValue Systems, Inc. http://www.linux-wlan.org
> President SmithConcepts, Inc. http://www.SmithConcepts.com
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