DNF 3: better performance and a move to C++

Posted Apr 4, 2018 20:31 UTC (Wed) by jhoblitt (subscriber, #77733)
In reply to: DNF 3: better performance and a move to C++ by Cyberax
Parent article: DNF 3: better performance and a move to C++

You can make the same modularity argument about just about any software. Why does a kernel need loadable modules? Why does `dlopen` need to exist? Why does an operating system need a package manager? Because example X does without it.

I gather that your satisfied with wrapper scripts like `apt-fast` and similar but it is arguably a poor experience for inexperienced end users. It also places more demands on project maintainers.

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DNF 3: better performance and a move to C++

Posted Apr 4, 2018 21:13 UTC (Wed) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (3 responses)

> You can make the same modularity argument about just about any software.
Absolutely.

> Why does a kernel need loadable modules?
By the same token, the kernel doesn't have pluggable CPU schedulers (and there was a huge flame war about that, just ask Con Kolivas).

> I gather that your satisfied with wrapper scripts like `apt-fast` and similar but it is arguably a poor experience for inexperienced end users. It also places more demands on project maintainers.
Why should there be "apt-fast"?!? The default apt should already be fast without any plugins.

Package retrieval is basically a solved problem, the set of plugins is stable for ages. Integrate them all into the core and forget about it.

DNF 3: better performance and a move to C++

Posted Apr 4, 2018 22:46 UTC (Wed) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link] (2 responses)

> Package retrieval is basically a solved problem, the set of plugins is stable for ages. Integrate them all into the core and forget about it.

Not quite. There are some which are stable but there is plenty of experimentation in this area of packaging. A recent example is the modularity project implemented via a plugin. There are also things that apply in specific circumstances (snapper) or only one distro among the many which use dnf now (subscription-manager plugin). Several of the plugins have been integrated into core when it made sense (delta rpms in yum used to be handled via a plugin originally) but not all of them fit that way.

DNF 3: better performance and a move to C++

Posted Apr 4, 2018 23:03 UTC (Wed) by Cyberax (✭ supporter ✭, #52523) [Link] (1 responses)

That's fine. Just fork a package and experiment with it. Internal modularity in the source code is, of course, important.

DNF 3: better performance and a move to C++

Posted Apr 5, 2018 0:17 UTC (Thu) by rahulsundaram (subscriber, #21946) [Link]

> That's fine. Just fork a package and experiment with it. Internal modularity in the source code is, of course, important.

That is painful compared to plugins and it only covers one of the use cases I was talking about