need to know if packaging our application stack as an rpm is the right way to go

[Stuart D. Gathman]

On Tue, 8 Feb 2011, mark meyer wrote:

> 1 - find a Windows package tool that uses a text file to define the
>     package.  Keep that in a packaging directory along with the RPM SPEC
>     file.
> 
> i do not understand this - are you saying that i can create an rpm
> distribution for windows?

No.  Just that you would keep the Windows package spec and RPM package spec
together to keep changes in sync as much as possible.

> our application stack is mostly jar and .swf files that are generated from a
> large "top level" build (using ant).  the final part of the build creates a
> large tar (or zip) file that we use distribute.  our custom installation
> process then just un-archives and lays down the files on the box in the
> appropriate locations, then fires several perl scripts that do all sorts of
> things.

The RPM SPEC file has several sections.

The %prep section of your SPEC file extracts the source you are building
into a clean directory tree.

The %build section has your ant command for the top level build within
the clean directory tree.

The %install section puts all the runtime files (jar and swf) in proper
position in a clean directory tree (usually under
/var/tmp/rpm-build/packagename).  The rpm has a compressed cpio archive of
these install files, plus lots of meta-data for dependencies, changelog, etc.

The %post section runs your perl scripts to do final fix up after installing.

> understood.  as mentioned above - since we more or less own both sides of the
> street, we know EVERYTHING there is to know about the composition of the
> install archive and the dependencies.

Maybe http://www.rpath.com is more what you need.  It is basically VCS+RPM
for an entire distro.  (Roll your own distro.)  It is free if all your
source is open source, pay if you need to keep some source proprietary.
It is a great way to maintain your "router than runs from a CD to make it
harder to hack".

-- 
	      Stuart D. Gathman <stuart at bmsi.com>
    Business Management Systems Inc.  Phone: 703 591-0911 Fax: 703 591-6154
"Confutatis maledictis, flammis acribus addictis" - background song for
a Microsoft sponsored "Where do you want to go from here?" commercial.