From: "Mauricio Fernández" Date: 2004-11-16T06:53:54+09:00 Subject: [ANN] rpa-base 0.2.3 rpa-base 0.2.3 is now available at http://rpa-base.rubyforge.org . Many of the most popular libraries/applications as per Rubyforge statistics (rake, redcloth, activerecord, rails, sqlite, log4r, ruvi, and some >140 more libs/apps) have been packaged for use with rpa-base 0.2.3. Screenshots and animations showing rpa-base's operations can be found at http://rpa-base.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.cgi?Rpa_Base_In_Action . Foreword ======== The Ruby Production Archive (RPA) will provide packages of Ruby libraries and programs in a form that allows production use, engineered through a stringent process resembling FreeBSD's or Debian's. rpa-base is a port/package manager designed to support RPA. Its scope and purposes are different to those of other systems like RubyGems. Please join #RPA on irc.freenode.net for additional information on RPA/rpa-base and their goals (several RPA developers and users hang around there). The FAQ list at http://rpa-base.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.cgi?Rpa_FAQ might prove useful too. Changes since 0.2.2 =============================== This is mostly a bugfix release. Work on new features and a better UI is taking place in the 0.3 branch at the moment. * critical workaround for a modification in ostruct.rb introduced recently in Ruby's ruby_1_8 CVS branch and HEAD (1.9), which broke rpa-base altogether. Note that this workaround was released as a self-update, but people using recent 1.8 builds (including the latest preview) would not be able to install rpa-base for the first time * support for rpa install package1.rpa .... packageN.rpa (you can copy the binary packages built on one machine to another and install without a connection to the Internet) * rpa update doesn't limit the new/updated info to the last 14 days * bash completion script included (thanks to Brian Schr�der, Nobu Nakada) * several minor bugfixes Status ====== Please keep in mind that RPA is at an embryonic stage; this means that it is impossible to commit to all the long term goals stated in the manifesto (http://rpa-base.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.cgi?RpaManifesto) at the moment. This doesn't make rpa-base any less usable however. rpa-base requires Ruby 1.8.[12] (certainly 1.8 at least, it might work on 1.8.0); it has been tested on several Linux distributions (Debian, Fedora, older RH, Gentoo, etc), FreeBSD, DragonFly BSD, Mac OSX, win32 (cygwin, 'pragmatic installer', WinXP and 2K). rpa-base is fairly stable at this stage; it has been tested on several platforms during the last 6 months. Since rpa-base can self-update, eventual bugs discovered through the intensive testing associated with a public release could be solved easily by upgrading rpa-base using rpa-base itself. We would appreciate any feedback on rpa-base. A mailing list has been set up for that purpose: http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rpa-base-testers Features ======== rpa-base is a port/package manager designed to support RPA's client-side package management. You can think of it as RPA's apt-get + dpkg. It features the following as of 0.2.3: * strong dependency management: rpa-base installs dependencies as needed, keeps track of reverse dependencies on uninstall, and will remove no longer needed dependencies * atomic (de)installs: operations on the local RPA installation are atomic transactions; the system has been designed to survive ruby crashes (OS crashes too on POSIX systems) * parallel installs: you can install several ports in parallel; building will be parallelized and the final phase will be serialized properly * self-hosting: rpa-base installs and updates itself * modular, extensible design: the 2-phase install is similar to FreeBSD and Debian's package creation; rpa-base packages need not be restricted to installing everything under a single directory ("1 package, 1 dir" paradigm) * rdoc integration: RDoc documentation for libraries is generated at install time (currently disabled on win32) * ri integration: ri data files are generated for all the libraries managed by RPA; you can access this information with ri-rpa * handling C extensions: if you have the required C toolchain, rpa-base can compile extensions as needed * unit testing: when a library is installed, its unit tests are run; the installation is canceled if they don't pass Several of the above features are illustrated in the screenshots and animations available at http://rpa-base.rubyforge.org/wiki/wiki.cgi?Rpa_Base_In_Action Limitations =========== A number of features have been pushed back to 0.3.0: * full support for binary platform-specific packages * signed packages/ports * system-wide configuration system * better UI In practice, the first one is the most limiting at the moment since it means that win32 users in particular need a working C toolchain to install extensions. This will soon be addressed. RPA needs your help =================== RPA is an ambitious project in need for developers. These are some of the areas that need to be worked on: * packaging (new software and package maintenance) * setting up a permanent repository infrastructure * cross-compilation and build automation * website development (should provide package indexes, QA section, bugtracking, etc) Please contact us through RubyForge's ML at http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rpa-base-testers or drop me an email at (adding RPA to the subject will help get it past the spam filtering ;) or via IRC, #RPA on freenode.net if you have any interest or for any additional information on RPA/rpa-base and their goals. -- Hassle-free packages for Ruby? RPA is available from http://www.rubyarchive.org/