Subject: 
            Re: Ripcord FreeDOS
       Date: 
            Sat, 17 Jun 2000 22:05:25 -0700
       From: 
            Jim Hall
Organization: 
            the FreeDOS Project
         To: 
            Joe Cosentino
         CC: 
            fd-dev <fd-dev@topica.com>
 References: 
            1 , 2 , 3 , 4




I am also cc'ing this to the FreeDOS mailing list, in case a perl god
out there feels like taking on a new challenge!  :)


James Hall wrote:
>
> Joe Cosentino wrote:
> >
> > > I may or may not do this.
> > >
> > > Actually, John Price and I once talked about getting together to
> > > create an automatically-updated distribution similar to Red
> > > Hat's "Rawhide".  We were going to call it "Ripcord FreeDOS"
> > > ("Bring your parachute!")  I have not done this because I have a
> > > number of other projects that I need to clean up.  Also, when
> > > John came up with the idea, I didn't have enough CGI programming
> > > under my belt to feel comfortable writing the bits that needed
> > > doing as CGI.  But I have this now.  I will try to resurrect
> > > (sp?) this after Beta5.
> >
> > I would like to help out with this if possible...

Well, I haven't actually forgotten about this one... but I won't have
time to work on it for a very long while.  Maybe after Beta5.  I don't
know.  If you want to create something, feel free and let me know.

What I was thinking was something like this:

- every FreeDOS program maintainer would login to an area on the
  FreeDOS site to enter an updated version of their program for the
  next Ripcord FreeDOS.  I would probably need to "prime" the first
  version with the last FreeDOS Beta distribution.

- The purposes of a Ripcord FreeDOS would be to provide a cutting edge
  (and perhaps buggy) distribution of FreeDOS that includes the latest
  software.  This could be downloaded regularly.  Note that I could
  then use a stable Ripcord version to create a new "official" FreeDOS
  release.  To keep the focus on the essentials, I think only the
  software from the "Base" list would be put into Ripcord.

- the maintainer would need to enter (at least) an LSM file, a URL to
  get a binary package (for the install disk) and a URL to get a
  source package (for the source disk.)

- a cron job would run nightly: for any new Ripcord entries, it would
  use `wget' to grab the binary and source packages, and dump them
  into some directory under /files/distributions/ripcord/INCOMING

- a cron job would run weekly: if new entries have come in, it would
  generate a new Ripcord FreeDOS disk set distribution based on the
  /files/distributions/ripcord/INCOMING files.  A new OEM.TXT file
  would be written for the install disk that increments the Ripcord
  FreeDOS version (see below), and the cron job would finish up by
  sending me or the FreeDOS list an email reminder that a new version
  of Ripcord had been posted.


For the Ripcord FreeDOS version number, I was thinking something like
this:

- assume a version number scheme like XX.YY.  For example: 1.3

- the kernel, FreeCOM, and Install program are all considered "very
  base" packages.  FDISK/FORMAT might go here, too.  If one changes,
  then the whole look and feel of the FreeDOS installation changes
  drastically.  Changing one of these would increment XX by one, and
  sets YY to zero.  For example, updating the kernel would change 1.3
  to 2.0.

- all other programs would be considered "base" but probably not
  something that would drastically change how FreeDOS is perceived.
  Changing one of these packages would increment YY by one, but keep
  XX the same.  For example, updating MODE would change 1.3 to 1.4.

- the reason to make weekly releases of Ripcord FreeDOS would be to
  keep those changes to a minimum.  If we did it daily, then it is
  conceivable that we would have 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 2.0, 2.1, and 2.2 all
  in one week!  No one would have time to test all of this before the
  next Ripcord release.




I think I've laid out something that is limited enough in scope to be
do-able, but with enough in it that it becomes immediately useful.

Feel like writing this?


-jh