Why would I use OpenPKG?

OpenPKG eliminates many of the problems normally associated with running multiple Unix systems. OpenPKG:

• Is independent of the vendor's package management system so changes don't affect vendor updates.

• Maintains its own versions of critical programs, rpm, gzip, gnu-tar, bash2, curl, patch, etc., statically linked, to insure that it has control of everthing necessary to build and maintain its own RPM database.

• Eases training since developers and admins only need to learn to build and maintain software using RPM with OpenPKG.

• Provides a common file structure, independent of the vendor's system. The OpenPKG system works within a single directory which is organized much like a ``standard'' Unix file system.

  

  The OpenPKG installations we use at Celestial are all installed under the /home/csoft/$ostype directory where $ostype is the type of operating system (e.g. suse81, freebsd47, etc.). Each system has a symbolic link from this directory to /csoft which makes it very easy to initialize and activate the OpenPKG enviornment with a single command:

  eval `/csoft/etc/rc --eval all env`

  This sets the PATH with /csoft/bin:/csoft/sbin,... before the standard PATH so the Celestial routines are found first.

• Maintains one or more software packages per instance of OpenPKG (there may be more than one OpenPKG system installed on a computer).

• Provides a Run Command (RC) to start, stop, restart, reload, and set the appropriate environment for all packages running under OpenPKG. The start/stop logic is very similar to the System V ``inittab'' processing. This RC provides a uniform method of starting and stopping packages with a logical priority system which is generally easier to use than the somewhat arcane logic of SysVInit scripts, and more flexible than FreeBSD.

  The RC also formalizes the process of setting package related environment variables, and is used to set the user's PATH environment variable which can enable or disable various packages within the OpenPKG system.

• Allows development by non-root users on the system. Many OpenPKG packages can be installed by unpriviledged users.

• Minimizes changes to the installed operating system. All OpenPKG software is installed in a separate directory hierarchy, with minimal linking into the base system.

• Provides a large number (just under 700 at this time) of standard source RPMS (SRPMS), designed for maximum portability. There are people who constantly monitor updates to these packages, and are very fast about keeping the official packages up to date. I've seen updates to programs like cvs with security fixes well before getting CERT advisories about security problems found.

  Using the OpenPKG versions of programs such as rsync and postfix allows uniform configuration regardless of the base operating systems.

• Encourages building from source on target systems to insure that all local configuration is optimized.