Re: Netscape or Mozilla as an rpm instead of tar or tar.gz

On 04/11/08 13:26 John Boyle apparently typed:

> To anyone: How come Netscape or Mozilla is not made as a rpm instead of 
> tar or tar.gz? 

Basically a tar.gz is a generic compilation that can run anywhere that 
generic libraries are installed. RPMs generally are compiled with more 
complicated dependencies, which means a multitude of RPMs would be needed to 
cover all the likely target systems, something well beyond the resources of 
Mozilla.org. The distribution makers make RPMs (or DEB or whatever packaging 
system they use) for their own systems with special dependencies taken into 
account.

You can have both. Mozilla testers do it all the time. Create a directory in 
/usr/local for the Mozilla.org version, and leave your packaging system to 
put the RPM wherever specified.

I do mine quite easily. I wget the file from mozilla.org. I then "enter" the 
archive with mc. Next I delete all files except the mozilla executable from 
the target location. Lastly, I copy the archive contents to the target 
destination. That's all there is to it, ready to run. It takes about a 
minute on broadband for the whole process.

On a related note, Mozilla.org's version of Firefox for Intel requires CPU's 
that use the i686 compatible instruction set. Distro makers can choose not 
to impose that restraint, allowing those using their RPMs on i586 CPUs 
without need to recompile, and all those I'm familiar with do just that.
-- 
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." U.S. Constitution, Amendment 1

  Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409

Felix Miata  ***  http://members.ij.net/mrmazda/