Package Managers. Favorites?

[Brian_Holiday]

I am currently working my way back into the UNIX world after a long absence. In line with that, I am working my way through building a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PhP) server based on FC4. My experience predates package managers, so I thought I would ask:

1) What is your favorite Package manager.

2) What package manager do I absolutely need to use for the paid *NIX administration workplace.

3) Anything I should avoid?

TIA,

BH

[hitest]

The rpm package manager (yum) in FC4 is quite good, you should have your LAMP server up in no time. I've used rpm managers (Red Hat, Fedora, Mandriva), Yast in Suse, apt-get in Debian and Ubuntu, and installpkg in Slackware. I would say from personal experience that the one that handles dependency issues very well is apt-get.

I haven't used it, but, I know from the experts here that Gentoo's port system is also excellent.

FC4 should do the job for you.

P.S. The experts are better qualified to answer questions 2-3.

Edited December 30, 2005 by hitest

[iccaros]

1) What is your favorite Package manager.

gentoo's Portage system (like BSD ports on speed)

2) What package manager do I absolutely need to use for the paid *NIX administration workplace.

Depends..

Red Hat systems (Red Hat, Fedora, SUSE, Mandervia,CentOS,White Box)

need to understand RPM's both how to deal with RPMS manually in RPM and SRPM form

yum is the "active" package manager

Debians APT and GUI too synaptic is also avaliable but can break a production system (see you are using non-officel depository's)

up2date is the update tool.

in the same vain for profecional work you should learn CVS,SUBVERSION and SQUID. It is a standard pratice to have one machine grab updates and it is a CVS or SUBVERSION server. a cron script does a cvs checkout every night on the rest of the machines and any changes are updated.. squid is a proxie server to seperate the update server and your production server.. just in case.. and so the you can ask for update to a spaciic server, but to red hat it comes from one subscription server (yes this is the Red Hat recommended way to save licensing cost)

Red Hat has an outstanding course on this.. the first Linux class to make me feel stupid..

debian systems use apt and synaptic

Solaris and Slackware use pkgadd (or pkginstall for slackware but works the same basic way)

with some slackware gui tools like slapt

3) Anything I should avoid?

depends agian..

in production avoid all non-stable packages for your distro. unless you test them on a development machine first.

also make backup of all config scripts before you update, keep systems back ups. and be prepaired to install stuff from source even if a package exsist.

example..

in Ubuntu if you install Webmin through apt,

A. it will not work

B. removing it will break apt, to a point that ubuntu needs reinstalled to fix.

so if you are installing webmin in ubuntu install from source (simple really just untar a file)

[naraku9333]

I love portage more than any other package management system hands down. If there's no ebuild for an app I want I'll use a tarball or convert an rpm into a tarball.

I would say the only PM system to avoid would be the one's that aren't compatible with the distro you are using (you wouldn't use a deb file on a Fedora system). In my opinion the best use of a PM system isn't the ease of installing apps, but the ability to keep track of installed apps and their versions. Dealing with dependencies is a big advantage to them as well.

I also highly agree with iccaros that knowing how to deal with tarballs and compiling is very important and something many people might never do if they stick strictly with a PM system.

Edited December 30, 2005 by naraku9333

[Brian_Holiday]

All great info, thank you very much. I am just digging into apt-get now and playing with it, before I move on to a survey of the rest of your suggestions.

I too agree that people should know how to do the process manually. Although I am a little rusty, I plan on building a few apps this way to get into the swing again.

Thanks again,

BH

[Carnevil]

Even though you're talking about linux, I'm going to have to say BSD's Ports,Pkgsrc and Pkg_add are the best package managers.