Codename Upak

Codename Upak, which currently stands for United Packagers, is a view of a standards stack for systems dealing with third-party software distribution, such as package management systems, and installer-based ones. At present Upak is not an active project, it is simply a collection of thoughts and reflections on how a standartization process could be started, involving both developers and users, how data may be collected, processed, uniformed, published, and given back to projects that need it - for better end-user experience and tighter collaboration between developers.

In summer 2006 a research was started in Unix package management systems. It became clear that as very similar work is done simultaneously in many separate projects, too much effort is wasted for nothing. While each project has its unique strengths and weaknesses, which in itself results in undisputable benefits of diversity, a standartization process can provide significant boosts in technology and organization for any system, without hindering its distinctiveness. Upak will focus on the possibilities of collaboration between the systems' developers, as well as particular points of interest, such as what each project can give to the other ones. In fact these points will constitute the start of Upak, as they are easily collectible and presentable, and are the easiest way to demonstrate some benefits of inter-project diffusion and cooperation.

Why here? Upak is currently a single-man effort by a FreeBSD ports committer, that is why it is a FreeBSD wiki page. In some time, it may be renamed, relocated or removed and forgotten.

Current topics

Technologies

Highlights

Upak keeps an eye out for advances in different related systems. Be it an OS-specific one, or a separate system, usable across multiple environments, Upak enumerates its strengths, and seeks ways to apply them wherever they might be beneficial.

AndrewPantyukhin/Upak (last edited 2022-10-03T08:52:14+0000 by KubilayKocak)