Software support in LFCS is currently based around a custom Linux distribution, built by local computing staff and derived from the popular Red Hat Linux. A significant difference from the previous arrangement, based on Sun systems, is that machines do not now run software from a shared file system. Rather, the whole Linux installation is distributed to each desktop PC individually. The new Informatics computing environment will probably follow the same model.
Red Hat Linux includes a large quantity of bundled software, but lacks many applications of interest to LFCS: compilers for functional or logic languages, for example. It does however include a versatile packaging system, RPM (Red Hat Package Manager), which can be used to wrap existing software so that it can be included in a distribution. RPM has the following relevant features.
The computing staff will not take arbitrary software and arrange to maintain it on all LFCS machines. However, they can easily incorporate pre-packaged RPM bundles into our local Linux distribution. There is therefore a useful niche for a person to take pieces of software relevant to LFCS and wrap them up as RPMs.
An associated benefit is that the same person can wrap software originating in LFCS. The RPM format is very widely used, and makes a convenient way to send out our own work. For example, Red Hat keep a widely-mirrored repository of contributed RPMs, and placing LFCS software there would increase its availability.
Alasdair Scobie has written a brief note on the use of RPM in Informatics. Paul Anderson has agreed to liaise with a PG assistant over the installation and maintenance of RPMs for LFCS. Indeed, he is particularly keen to have single person to deal with, and a separation of responsibility for wrapping, as distinct from the enclosed software, makes this possible.
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