purely package-based/oriented solution

[Andriy Gapon]

on 22/04/2008 22:41 Andriy Gapon said the following:
> Sorry if this is something obvious or a FAQ.
> 
> Is there a tool for purely package-based management of third-party software?
> That is, something that meets the following criteria:
> 1. doesn't require ports tree
> 2. works similarly to package installation in FreeBSD installer
> 3. can properly handle upgrading packages (including dependencies)
> 4. can check remote package repositories and, based on timestamp or
> INDEX, can find new versions for installed packages
> 5. can verify that all dependencies would be met before downloading all
> packages in full (e.g. based on INDEX data or can download initial
> blocks of packages, so that package metadata could be extracted and
> examined).
> 

Results so far:
1. One tool that I found in ports was bpkg, its description and manual
page sounded promising.
But after I saw the following line in its code I decided to not even try it:
pkg_delete -fa && pkg_add -r $all

2. Michel Talon has kindly let me know about his tool name pkgupgrade
(in python). I must say that this is a tool that satisfied all my
technical requirements, it worked very well, quite fast and very safely.
It generates a script to perform an actual update and creates necessary
backups and records. Then you can review the logs and the script and
proceed.
I think this tool should be added to ports.
I will definitely keep using it.

But on some levels I am still not completely satisfied.
This is mostly about UI. I have to do some development on RedHat's OSes
and there I came to be familiar with yum:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_dog_Updater,_Modified

It is really no brainer to use for everyday tasks:
yum install xxx
yum update xxx
yum update <--- for all
But underneath it has smarts and safety nets.

-- 
Andriy Gapon