Meta Package
The birth of an meta idea
The idea of MPackage was born on Chemnitz Linux Days 2008.
I've had a lot of discussions with people from different projects, especially openSUSE and FreeBSD - the two operating systems I build packages for.
I maintain some applications for both projects and its sucks. All the work has to be done twice whenever there is an update or just a patch needed.
There are a lot of tools and scripts converting from DEB to RPM and from TBZ to RPM and from RPM to DEB... But the problem is, that conversion on package or port level is not easy.
Also, there is pkgsrc which provides one mechanism for many operating system but replaces the native packaging system.
So, I spend most of my time at work dealing with meta models - why not creating a meta model for application packaging?
The mission
The mission is clear: Creating a meta model for application packaging and a toolchain to generate the needed infrastrukture for RPM, DEB, FreeBSD Ports, pkgsrc, emerge...
Because I work mostly with openSUSE and FreeBSD I will do it for RPM and Ports at first. But I'll try to keep the design as open as possible for guaranty that other package systems can also generate packages from MPackage.
I do not intend to replace any existing packaging system, and I don't want to offer installable packages in any way.
What MPackage is not
- a distribution or an operating system
- a build or versioning system
- a replacement for any packaging system
- a provider of installable packages