Re: [ANN] LuaRocks 0.4.1

["Leo Razoumov" <slonik.az@...>]

On 1/28/08, Hisham <hisham.hm@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jan 25, 2008 9:07 PM, Leo Razoumov <slonik.az@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 1/25/08, Hisham <hisham.hm@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > And here is release 0.4.1 of LuaRocks, the system for deployment and
> > > management of Lua modules.
> >
> > It would be very useful to be able to use luarocks to update itself. I
> > currently have luarocks-0.3.2 installed and I would like to be able to
> > do something like
> >
> > sh$ luarocks install luarocks
> >
> > to update it to version 0.4.1. I think it would be a good test of
> > luarocks viability as a packaging system if it can at least update
> > itself trouble free.
>
> Again there is the bootstrapping issue: LuaRocks is meant to be
> eventually distributed by Linux distributions, etc, and as such it is
> not supposed to mess with its own files, which are under the auspicies
> of the distribution package manager. Also, the focus of LuaRocks is to
> be a deployment and management system for Lua modules, and not a
> general-purpose package manager for applications. So, while this could
> be technically possible, I'd prefer to avoid the user confusion and
> support issues that could arise from systems containing an older
> LuaRocks installed by a distribution and a newer LuaRocks installed by
> the older one stored within the older version's repository.
>
> -- Hisham
>

This is precisely my point. Unless I carefully follow your release
announcements there is no way for me to know that there is a new
luarocks release. As a result, I will fall behind with the updates and
use outdated luarocks version (0.3.2 as I write) -- precisely the
situation you are trying to avoid. luarocks has a mechanism to tell me
that new rocks are available. It should have similar mechanism to
remind me to update luarocks itself!! Relying on distribution updates
is not a good idea either. In addition to Linux Lua runs on Windows
and Mac OS that do not follow Linux distribution concept. Even with
Linux, do not expect that package maintainers will push new packages
in stable releases. Most updates in Ubuntu Feisty, for example, are
security fixes. The only alternative to luarocks self-bootstrap, IMHO,
is to make luarocks a part of official Lua distribution and who knows
if or when it happens.

Thanks for your great work. Luarocks rock despite its minor shortcomings!!

--Leo--

P.S. Is it possible to include module documentation in the rocks
alongside *.lua and *.so files?