Ok, so here's how the new package management for distributions is supposed to work.
You use your favorite manager (yum, apt-get, etc), you install the binary, and then away you go.
For the longest time, I would have problems with non-standard naming conventions. Most well-behaved GTK/Gnome apps at least throw themselves in the menu, but that assumes you're using a desktop system. Occasionally, when installing RPM's on my server, I won't even know what the command is to invoke the darn thing. The install command might be "yum install foo," but after it's installed, you might have to run foo or Foo or g2Fu or whatever. You're dropped off after yum does its job with no help.
It's like taking a bus to a convention and being dropped off 5 blocks away, with no sign or map.
Which brings me to my next point. I'm trying to install Mailman to start a small listserv-type thing. I I had to root around to find it (do you search "listserv" or "web mailing list" or what?). When I found it, I got yum to happily install it. However, now what?
It's supposed to be administered from the web. There are files in /etc/mailman, but I rooted around in there without finding much. There's no man page installed, so I'm at a loss. What's the URL? There's an entry in /etc/httpd/conf.d for mailman, which means apache is supposed to redirect some URL to it, but *what* URL? In this case, where do I look for help? It's times like I this I can see the gap between theory and practice in free software.
Posted by flynn at August 22, 2007 1:26 PM