Yes, it is possible to get rpm-5 to work in openSUSE. Here is the howto for 11.2.
http://www.algonet.se/~afb/rpm/opensuse-rpm5.txt
Now I would appreciate if some would try this with me.
You’re hitting one of the few things I’m not going to experiment with: package management.
LOL. with this, it’s safe. I made sure of it.
It seems you didn’t go to the link I posted above. So here are the directions.
OPENSUSE 11.2 (# = comments, $ = commands)
=============
$ sudo zypper refresh # apt-get update
$ sudo zypper update # apt-get upgrade
$ sudo zypper install cvs bison
$ cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@rpm5.org:/cvs login
Logging in to :pserver:anonymous@rpm5.org:2401/cvs
CVS password:
$ cvs -d :pserver:anonymous@rpm5.org:/cvs co -r rpm-5_1_9-release -d rpm-5.1.9 rpm
$ cd rpm-5.1.9
# replace devel version with release version
$ sed -e 's/5.1.DEVEL/5.1.9/' -i configure.ac
# autogen dirs: db lua file xar xz pcre syck
$ ./devtool checkout
$ sudo zypper install gcc make
# bootstrap/testdrive /tmp/rpm
# (and dependencies in ../3rd)
$ ./devtool standalone
$ /bin/rpm --version
RPM version 4.7.1
$ /tmp/rpm/bin/rpm --version
rpm (RPM) 5.1.9
Notice how that the newly installed rpm5 is in /tmp
See? Follow this, and it’ll be ok.
Good. But I am still wondering what are the benefits to switch to RPM 5 in an openSUSE context…
Good question.
While cross platform may not pertain directly to openSUSE, that is one benefit.
Improved compression/formats. For example, xar.
You can use sqlite as a fallback or an alternative. Rpm uses berkley database. Rpm5 can use berkley or sqlite.
As a side note, rpm5 includes satsolver. I don’t know if that’s a benefit or not, but it is note worthy.
Hum, you mean that the dependency solver is included in the format itself ? Is it not a far better approach to let it be managed by high level tools, such as Zypp?