Anybody want to port ipkg to busybox?

[Rob Landley]

On Monday 13 February 2006 11:56, Andy Green wrote:

> Well it uses a cunning plan which makes implementation of the "database"
> extremely efficient on busybox footprint: on package install it copies
> the RPM header wholesale into /var/lib/rpm named as the package
> basename.  So for (a real) example, you install a 25K
> iptables-1.3.4.20060130-7.arm.rpm, and a 2025-byte file
> /var/lib/rpm/iptables is generated.  The biggest on my system is the one
> for busybox, 17725 bytes from a 346K RPM.  Since this is basically the
> RPM without cpio archive, all of the existing RPM parsing routines "just
> work" when pointed at it giving extreme efficiency and no real database.
>
> Detection of what is installed consists of walking /var/lib/rpm/*
> looking inside what is there as the need arises,eg

Clever.  (The implementation makes even me go "ew", but I've got to admit: 
that's clever.)

> The RPM frontend is not compressed, so if you use a compressed
> filesystem the /var/lib/rpm/* "database" will be half what it seems.  If
> the other package formats can use this trick, I really recommend it.

Hmmm...  /var/lib/rpm, /var/lib/ipkg, /var/lib/dpkg depending on what you 
installed, and then have the dependency checker loop through all the types it 
supports when looking for something...

Could work.

> -Andy

Rob
-- 
Never bet against the cheap plastic solution.