Re: [OT] Scripts, packages, etc.

On Mon, Jun 23, 2003 at 11:48:49AM -0400, Paul Jarc wrote:
> "Nicholas E. Walker" <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Downgrading packages to known-stable versions is tedious at best
> > through impossible, when one does not have copies of the now
> > 'outdated' (and thus unavailable) packages.
> 
> I don't see how any packaging system can be expected to solve that.

The /package mechanism allows one to install a potentially unstable
version of a package without needing even to set it as the system
'default' (i.e. the one with commands linked into /command).  One can
have multiple versions installed in parallel (and never need to
downgrade for lack of a need to upgrade).  

Whereas with dpkg and RPM, one must remove the known-stable package and
perhaps some of its dependencies and install the perhaps-unstable new
version and its perhaps-unstable dependencies.  If it is indeed unstable
let-us-pray that we have copies of all of the previous versions and that
downgrading doesn't fubar our system configuration.

But, you know this.  You even state it on your website in the Caveats
section on the sp-foreign page.  I don't understand why you made this
comment.

Nicholas