DSL packages
Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: DSL packages
started by: Zucca
Posted by Zucca on Feb. 13 2008,19:02
Wiki has only manual how to create tar.gz packages.How does other packages are installed to the system?
I just need to know how they differ from each oters and cons & pros.
I think I could contribute some packages. I can _easily_ create *.tbz2 packages on my primary system. (All compiled on Pentium III processor with newest compilers)
Also a small word about easy package "installation":
If you have precompiled program inside tar package (compressed with gz/bz2 or not) you could use < AVFS > to mount almost any compressed file archive. Anyone considered usage of this in DSL? I haven't used AVFS. But it seems to have potetial to be very useful system utility.
Posted by curaga on Feb. 13 2008,19:14
.dsl means a .tar.gz, which writes to other places than just /opt, /home, and /tmp. It's just renamed to .dsl..uci is a clooped .iso, the concept is similar to .tar.gz - only write to /opt, be self-contained.
.unc is also a clooped iso, but it can write anywhere (using unionfs).
So, there are two main types of packages, and one unionfs/cloop variant of each.
The main difference between unionfs and normal is smaller ram usage in livecd and frugal environments. They cannot be "permanently" installed, they have to be loaded on boot to archieve that effect. .dsl and .tar.gz can be installed permanently to HD installs, and .tar.gz can be installed permanently to frugal if you have persistent opt set up.
Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Feb. 13 2008,19:19
Or look again in the wiki < http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Category:MyDSL >
Posted by Zucca on Feb. 13 2008,19:23
And have you any experience with AVFS (first post modified)?
Posted by Zucca on Feb. 13 2008,19:40
It seems that easiest for me is to create .unc packages because I can create packages staright from my system with one command that collects all the files in the installation and adds them to tbz2 file. But .uci packages aren't hard either if it is a simple package (contains only few files).But basically .unc is compressed image file? With gz or bz2?
Posted by curaga on Feb. 13 2008,20:03
Well, to repeat myself 
unc is a clooped (=compressed for use with cloop) iso (9660) image. You don't have to create it yourself, just create a .dsl and have dsl2unc transform it for you.All DSL packages and procedures (backup etc) use gzip, because bzip2 has way steeper ram & power requirements.
Posted by Zucca on Feb. 13 2008,23:16
Ok. Thanks for all the info. I'll try to pull some dsl pkgs out soon.
Posted by Zucca on Mar. 06 2008,11:03
Btw.Would it be possible to have user to choose how to install packages. In form of .dsl or in form of unmountable .unc?
This way we could reduce the number of packages having same program. Also it makes (IMHO) package installing less confusing.
Posted by curaga on Mar. 06 2008,13:54
Unc's aren't too unmountable, that tends to crash unionfs 