klm@cme.nist.gov (Ken Manheimer) (09/21/90)
Archive-name: depot/21-Sep-90 Original-posting-by: klm@cme.nist.gov (Ken Manheimer) Original-subject: Re: Software installation opinions needed Archive-site: durer.cme.nist.gov [129.6.32.4] Archive-directory: /pub Reposted-by: emv@math.lsa.umich.edu (Edward Vielmetti) I and some other factory automation and robotics systems development staff here at NIST have just completed a paper about something very relevant to this software-installation thread. It's called the depot, and it's a fairly cohesive approach we developed for sharing software packages across host platform and organizational boundaries. We're going to be presenting the paper at the Usenix LISA (Large Installation Systems Administration) conference in the middle of October, but since it seems so germane to this discussion thread i've obtained permission to make it available to anyone on the net that might be interested. It's available via anonymous ftp and mail archive services. Here's how to get it. You can ftp it as 'pub/depot.lisa.ps.Z' from 'durer.cme.nist.gov'. Be sure to use ftp's binary mode to get the compressed file. Then uncompress your copy and 'lpr' it to a postscript printer or browser. If you cannot ftp you can request an email copy by mailing to "library@cme.nist.gov". The contents of the message (with no subject line) should be "send pub/depot.lisa.ps.Z". The library server will send a reply as promptly as intervening connections will allow. As well as delineating an entire approach, i think the paper expresses some fundamental views i share on many of the issues under discussion in this thread. There's a lot i'd like to add but i'm tooo sleepy and would probably do best to let the paper speak for us. I hope it's of some use to you. BTW, i want to mention that the depot development is not part of nor does it particularly reflect any of the operating-systems standards efforts going on here at the NIST. A few prior postings allude to "what we do here at NIST" but in fact this is only how some of us do it here at NIST - the NIST is a large place and the depot framework is so far used only by a small number of us. We haven't corresponded with, eg, the POSIX development folks here about how they might approach this kind of thing. The point is that this is *not* an official standard we're proposing, just an approach we've adopted to help make our jobs easier... Cheers, Ken Manheimer (301) 975-3539 National Institute of Standards and Technology INTERNET: klm@cme.nist.gov (Formerly National Bureau of Standards) UUCP: ..!uunet!cme-durer!klm Rm. A127, Bldg. 220 Gaithersburg, MD 20899 Factory Automation Systems Division /Integrated Systems Group, Unix Support Manager Do you remember life as a child? When you woke up in the morning, and the morning smiled? ~~ Taj Mahal