Description

The rpm bundle concept is a way to build and distribute a set of rpm. The idea is to define tools to easily constuct sets and to avoid each software maker to construct its own installer.

There are 2 tools:

  1. The rpm bundle builder takes as input an xml description of the bundle, optional shell scripts and the rpm files and produces an rpm bundle file.
  2. The rpm bundle installer takes as argument an rpm bundle and allows an interactive installation of the rpm files contained in the rpm bundle.

The installer is designed to display the license associated with the bundle, handle an interactive phasis and then install the rpm. The tool is implemented in 2 parts: the backend which handles all the management of the rpm bundle format and a frontend which handle all the user interface. The frontend is just a proof of concept and it will be replaced by Linux distributors and/or dekstop environment with a new program that is better integrated with the package management tools.

The frontent and the backend discuss with a very simple ascii protocol.

Usage of the tools

Edit the test.xml file to add some real rpm packages.

Then as a user use this command to create the rpm bundle:

$ ./rpmb-create tests.xml b.rpmb

As root, use the following command to install the rpm bundle:

# ./rpmb-install b.rpmb

Status

These tools are just an exploratory work and they are not to be used in real life.

Download the archive here.

All comments welcome!