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Currently considered questions and opinions about the minimal set of software packages necessary to run LON-CAPA.

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* New changes to RPM list (bare minimal set for LON-CAPA) *
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Guy and Isaac kindly took time to go through the rpm package
listings and pencil in their thoughts about how things were
connected as well as suggesting modifications.

So, to continue this thread of discussion so that we
can nail this down as "done", these are my responses.
Perhaps we finalize this at next week's meeting?

+=agreement; -=disagreement; ?=still pondering

(To quelch any confusion, the words following the '+-?' character
represent my current opinion).

(You can view the last rpm_list.txt file in the CVS doc repository).
(This file is stored in rpm_list_discuss.txt in the CVS doc repository).

+ Need to add ssh support
+ Need to add ImageMagick package
+ Do not need tetex-dvilj
+ Do not need tetex-xdvi
+ Will keep tetex-afm
- do not need any X-based applications like
  gftp or gv (since the bare minimal set does not support
  X-windows; it's just a server)
? krb5-libs; krb5-config
  Gerd indicated the desire to stick with the current from-
  source-compilation of kerberos.  I probably should test
  out these RPMs anyway on one of the machines that does not
  yet have the kerberos functionality implemented with the
  zaphod compiled binaries.
- do not need telnet or telnet server (security risk)
- Let's keep gnupg and gpgp packages.  Support public encryption
  and is a "failsafe" way to verify rpm packages and their files on
  a RedHat derived system.
- ftp could be very useful after a admin ssh's into the system
  (ftp is a client app, not a server).  Let's keep ftp.
- Let's keep sysreport:
  Here is the RPM description..
  Sysreport is a utility which gathers information about a system's
  hardware and configuration. The information can then be used for
  diagnostic purposes and debugging.  Sysreport is commonly used to help
  support technicians and developers by providing a "snapshot" of a
  system's current layout.
- Let's keep ncompress and bzip2.  Standard compression/decompression
  utilities.  In the course of maintaining, upgrading a LON-CAPA machine,
  it is conceivable that we need to send a bzipped upgrade file (bzip2
  is becoming more and more prevalent as I understand it).
+ Need to add ghostscript-fonts (thanks for pointing it out Isaac).
? cdrecord, cdrecord-devel
? There is a whole host of image manipulation libraries.  Isaac believes
  ghostscript relies on some of these, and he's probably right.
  libgr libgr-devel libgr-progs libjpeg libjpeg-devel libpng libpng-devel
  libungif libungif-devel libtiff libtiff-devel
- Let's keep units. (very debatable still..) 
  Units converts an amount from one unit to another, or tells you what
  mathematical operation you need to perform to convert from one unit to
  another.  Units can only handle multiplicative scale changes (i.e., it
  can't tell you how to convert from Celsius to Fahrenheit, which
  requires an additive step in addition to the multiplicative
  conversion).

  Units is a handy little program which contains a large number of
  conversions, from au's to parsecs and tablespoons to cups.  You
  probably don't need to install it, but it comes in handy sometimes.
- Let's keep routed.
  The routed routing daemon handles incoming RIP traffic and broadcasts
  outgoing RIP traffic about network traffic routes, in order to
  maintain current routing tables.  These routing tables are essential
  for a networked computer, so that it knows where packets need to be
  sent.

  The routed package should be installed on any networked machine.
- Let's keep quota.  (What if, for instance, an instructor creates
  stupendously huge quicktime movies?)  Why crash the system?
  The quota package contains system administration tools for monitoring
  and limiting users' and or groups' disk usage, per filesystem.

  Install quota if you want to monitor and/or limit user/group disk
  usage.
+ Let's get rid of shapecfg.  (It does set traffic bandwidth parameters,
  but this probably is ridiculous overhead).
- No need for netscape-navigator since, once again, the bare minimal
  system will not have X-windows
? cracklib/cracklib-dicts: seriously, there may be a real issue with
  instructors picking very-easy-to guess passwords.  Do we want some
  level of password enforcement?
+ Ok ok ok ok.. we'll have man-pages if it makes Guy happy :)
- giftrans, not really needed, is it?
- sgml-common/libxml/etc, most of the redhat rpms related to sgml and xml
  are still in their infancy in terms of providing needed algorithms.
  I don't think we are using any of them. Are we?
- We don't need imlib or imlib-devel.  It is X-windows specific.