Re: Looking for Installation tool

varon@rtsg.mot.com (Avi Varon) writes:


      Installing OS, Informix, and many other packages and softwares on a
      machine requires many manual steps. This include things like
      formatting/partitioning hard drives, installing packages, patches,
      configuring it, loading upgrades to it, etc...


      All in all a messy, long and laborious procedure. It often has
      operator errors and leads to things like a long cycle and often
      creates problems due to some operator error which may not become
      visible till much later.


One pretty good tool out there is RPM (RedHat package manager, a tool
and data format for installing software used by Linux distributor, Red
Hat software). RPM has provisions for dependency control, selective
replacing old versions of software, inventory control, loading across
the network, and source code management.


No other system, including the commercial Unix/windows installation
packages, beats the simplicity of upgrading software straight from Red
Hat FTP server via RPM; they use PGP signatures, too, so that the
paranoid can sleep well.


Of course the RPM format is in public domain, so it could be used on
non-Linux platforms as well. The RPM distribution encourages people to
port it and documents the process of creating RPMs.


I don't know how RPM would let you format/partition disks---I only
used it to install packages on existing filesystems.


--
przemek klosowski (przemek@nist.gov)
Reactor Division (bldg. 235), E111
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA


(301) 975 6249
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