Redhat Considered Harmful
Posted: Wed, 9 November 2005 | permalink | No comments
I try hard not to hate Redhat, I really do. I don't visibly grimace when someone says "I'm running $REDHAT_DERIVED_DISTRO", and my first solution to "I can't get this to work on $REDHAT_DERIVED_DISTRO" is almost never "just install {Debian,Ubuntu}".
But Redhat makes it so hard to not beat them with a stick. For instance, I'm working on building a SOE for a client, and so I've got a bunch of scripts (calling random poorly documented and hard-to-find utilities) to help me do that. Naturally, I'm pruning the package list, which requires me to rebuild the list of packages which are on the CD. No problems, I can handle that.
Oh, but the tool that builds the package list can't deal with the correct "ordering" of packages in the list. Why is ordering important? Because, and this will make you laugh, the installer can't actually deal with dependencies. Yes, that's right, anaconda will install your packages in any old order you specify, regardless of what is actually needed.
Brain-damaged, certainly, but I've dealt with Windows, so this is ultimately a minor setback. The tools for building the packages lists are in a certain package, which I dutifully install. They then proceed to fail horribly. Why, do you ask? Because the script requires python modules from another package. Gee, wouldn't be handy if there was a mechanism by which a package could specify that it needed another package to operate? OH WAIT, THERE IS -- IT'S CALLED DEPENDENCIES, FOR $DEITY'S SAKE! YOU WROTE THE GODDAMN RPM SPECIFICATION, REDHAT, WHY CAN'T YOU ACTUALLY USE SOME OF IT'S FRIGGING FEATURES!
But wait, there's more! Installing the package which contains the module doesn't actually make the module accessable to anything else on the system, because the module is installed in some god-forsaken, out of the way location, where Python fears to tread. You need to specify PYTHONPATH to make it work. Apparently someone was sure that specifying absolute paths in scripts (instead of letting the system search it's environment) was a bad idea, but didn't have problem with not putting modules in standard, well-known locations.
Then, of course, the (other) tool segfaults. Why? Because it's reading an empty file. Wow. An empty file causes this thing to fall over in a screaming heap. Not "Sorry bub, but your file's empty" just an unceremonious segfault. Wow. Thanks.
And that's even before we get around to actually doing an install...
Post a comment
All comments are held for moderation; markdown formatting accepted.