Using Portage in a non-Linux enviornment

[TwoSlick]

My boss asked me to find or create a way to keep software utilities updated for several of our Unix systems. We keep the standard utilities as source code, and then let the users on the various systems compile it, and use it as they need. It's going to be my job to find a way to identify outdated software, update required packages, and give users access. Since I'm an avid Linux fan, and found the joy in using Genoo about three weeks ago, Portage was the first thing that popped in my mind when he gave me this assignment. I believe the software we are using is basicaly the same as tracked by gentoo's portage.

So my question is.... Is there any way to adapt the portage system for a non-Linux environment? Or, is there some other package system that is similiar.

Thanks,
- Tim

[474]

I'm sure it is, though I wonder whether it would be like using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut You'll need to be good with Python to understand its particulars so I wouldn't recommend it unless that is the case. This is also why I heard some people say they prefer Source Mage Linux to Gentoo, simply because it uses bash scripts rather than Python for source management - so you might want to look at the system used in that distro too.

You don't say what flavour of Unix is running on these boxes, but I would be careful about the notion of just re-using the Portage tree. There are patches/revisions that only apply to Linux in some cases, and other Unixes might require code alterations - I believe that is why they are called ports in the first place (for the *BSDs)!

I'm not sure whether this would be even remotely useful but have a look at: http://www.openpkg.org/ - at least it supports various Unixes.

[c_kuzmanic]

It can be done but like the previus post said, you need to be really fit with Python. Also, Portage is in constant development, so new features/functionality/changes/fixes might occur on a daily base. From that perspective, you'd have to make a wise decision as to what version of portage you want to base your modified version on. I do vaguely remember that early versions of portage were running under bash, (maybe an old ebuild would help you there if you prefer bash) somebody please correct me if I'm wrong:)

[Beattie]

I would suggest that you either write something to do it for you, portage is rather powerful for what you seem to be doing... and/or look into "ports" in the (Free)BSDs. Just put the sources where you want, use NIS+ or something to automount the main server, and then have people run a simple script that fetches and runs the make.

[antrod]

I've thought about something like this for OSX, maybe like the Fink project (excuse the non active link: http://fink.sourceforge.net/ but I cant figure out this retarded template mechanism-- why not just have html as input?!?) except instead of using Debian as the base, I could use portage. I tend to think that using Python is an advantage over bash and perl based systems-- python is much cleaner and smaller than either of the other two environments.

Any interest here?