[Lf_desktop] LSB Package API

[Yaakov Nemoy]

On Sat, Jun 21, 2008 at 11:51 AM, Denis Washington <dwashington at gmx.net> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Some time ago, it was discussed on an LSB face-to-face meeting that an
> API should be developed that allows ISVs to install sotware packages
> which integrate into the package manager - the "Berlin Packaging API".
> While the idea seemed to be well received, there didn't seem much
> progress since then, except for a wiki page with a rundimentary proposal
> [1]. Considering that third-party software installation is an undeniably
> important weak spot of the Linux infrastructure, I found this was a
> shame.
>
> To reignite the the initiative, I decided to design and develop a
> prototype implementation of the Berlin API, most creatively named the
> "LSB Package API". It is designed as a simple D-Bus interface
> accompanied with an XML-based package description format. A detailed
> description and the source code can be found on this page:
>
>  http://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/LSB_Package_API
>
> The implementation currently supports integration into RPM and dpkg; due
> to its modular nature, support for more package managers could be added
> later on.
>
> I hope this implementation will act as a starting point for resurrecting
> the Berlin API process. Let us overcome the "Third-party software
> installation on Linux sucks" problem and strive to a brave new world of
> easily distributable Linux software! ;)
>
> Best regards,
> Denis Washington
>
> [1] http://www.linuxfoundation.org/en/Berlin_Packaging_API

How is this different than PackageKit?  PackageKit seems to cover the
use case of presenting a comprehensive API and userspace tools to
manage packages consistently across distros.  What can the Berlin API
do that PackageKit doesn't do, and doesn't make sense for PackageKit
to do?

-Yaakov