So many formats, So few packages

[Anders F Björklund]

Currently MacPorts has all of these archive formats:
tar, tgz, tbz, tbz2 (default), tlz, txz, xar, zip, cpio, cpgz

And all these package formats, both binary and source:
rpm, srpm, pkg, mpkg, dmg (MacPorts), mdmg, dpkg, xpkg, portpkg


Shouldn't some of the more useless / unneeded ones,
like cpio/xar and dpkg/xpkg, be removed from "base" ?

It's just cluttering up the code, without getting used.
Wouldn't it be better to pick one or two, and use them ?


The tar/tgz/tbz/tlz/txz formats only differ in compression,
and the dmg/mdmg non-flat targets aren't needed after Tiger.

Main reason for keeping rpm (in addition to pkg) is that
it is an open format, unlike pkg (bom) which is proprietary.


But as mentioned for the GSoC projects, none of the archive
information is being used now and none of the package formats
have port scripts exported. So to use "real" binary packages,
one _would_ have to extend either tgz/txz or rpm/pkg anyway...

Or just leave the archives with their +PORTFILE as they are,
and just treat the packages like an exported "lossy" format ?
The .tbz2.rmd160 should be "good enough" to go, and certainly
better than blocking the *real* goal of delivering binaries...

--anders