Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sun, 4 Apr 1999 19:38:16 -0600 (MDT) | From | Chris Ricker <> | Subject | Re: /usr/src/linux/Documentation/Changes |
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On Sun, 4 Apr 1999, Alex Buell wrote:
> The 1.55 release: > ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/sct/quota/quota-1.55-10.i386.rpm > ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/sct/quota/quota-1.55-10.src.rpm > > WHY IS THIS ONLY IN RPM FORMAT?! Please could we have a tarball of the > sources!! I am not downloading RPM just to get at the sources! (Yes, I > checked in the ftp server)
First, FYI, rpm's do not require that you install rpm software. They're just cpio archives + a header. Use perl, ed, or whatever to strip off the header, then extract the cpio [1]. If you get the .src.rpm, the cpio should be a tarball of the original source, plus a patch file or two of Stephen's changes to actually make it work. Grab that, strip it, extract it, explode the tarball and apply the patches, and you should be set.
Furthermore, don't you think you're being just a tad bit petulant? It's in RPM because the author (Stephen Tweedie, I think) chose to do it that way. "He who writes the code gets to make the rules." It's not like he posted it in rot-13, uuencoded, and then binhex4 or something absurd like that--rpm is a fairly standard Linux file format, particularly given that he's a RH employee.
If my recollection is right, the quota package was at one point in the development cycle basically not being maintained (either the maintainer was swamped with other work, or MIA, or unknown, or whatever--the quota software is just a linux port of the *BSD quota stuff, so it's not even like there's a definite author per se). It also needed to be updated because it broke badly with quotas over 4 gigs. Stephen probably didn't want to become the maintainer, so he just added a patch to the rpm to provide support for larger quotas, and then was nice enough to put the package on his ftp site for everyone instead of just leaving it on ftp://updates.redhat.com/ for only Red Hat users to find.
Since that time, somone else has started actively maintaining the quota package, and they've added some additional support to it that helps with quotas over knfs and such, so I've been meaning to update the Changes file to mention that. However, I've been having a really hard time getting patches accepted, so it hasn't gotten updated....
Hit ftp.cistron.nl/pub/people/mvw/ for the current package. I think it's up to 1.70, but 1.65 is really all you need, and only then if you're doing quotas over knfs. Otherwise, 1.55 is fine (either the unpatched if you don't have quotas for any users over 4 gig, or patched if you do). However, I think 1.70 fixes the problems that were discussed on bugtraq a while ago, so it might be worth getting for that reason as well. It's the version I use, anyway.
> Finally, I think the Changes file should have each particular part of the > system attributed to a specific author so I can email them directly > instead of posting to the list.
I'll keep it in mind for 2.3, if I bother to keep doing the Changes file.
later, chris
[1] http://www.eleves.ens.fr:8080/home/espel/rpm2cpio has a perl script already written for you
-- Chris Ricker kaboom@gatech.edu chris.ricker@m.cc.utah.edu Politics and the fate of mankind are formed by men without ideals and without greatness. Those who have greatness within them do not go in for politics. -- Albert Camus
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