Re: [Bug-stow] Is it handling packages or symbolic links?

[Adam Spiers]

Hi again Jean,

On 4 April 2017 at 19:58, Jean Louis <address@hidden> wrote:
>Hello,
>
>I have read the documentation and have been using Stow long time, one
>year, actively. It is nice peace of software.
>
>Yet, I cannot agree it is "managing the installation of software
>packages".

You should already know that I do not consider Stow to be a package
manager in the "normal" (modern) sense, since I wrote that the last time
we discussed this:

    http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/info-stow/2016-11/msg00008.html

It certainly does not attempt to have any of the same functionality as
modern package managers such as rpm, dpkg, nix, etc.

That is why in 2012 I changed the web page and the README.md to
modernize the description of Stow and more accurately reflect what it is:

    http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/stow/stow/stow.html?r1=1.17&r2=1.18

    
https://github.com/aspiers/stow/commit/b6f9ef2b2fb4ce11a28ec389dd620ede52ed948d

That said, there is still room for the documentation to be improved:

>It shall be corrected in the documentation, and also the --arguments
>shall be corrected in their descriptions of what it does.

Patches are welcome for this.  I have filed this issue to track it:

    https://github.com/aspiers/stow/issues/22

> GNU Stow:
>
> - does not know anything about the package, it does not ready and meta
>   data of any "package", it cannot recognize that something is "a
>   software package", even if it can be used for software package. Yet
>   descriptions shall be more accurate, to make a distinction to the
>   real software package managers.
>
> - Installing package, deleting packages shall be renamed in the info
>   documentation, it is misleading. It does not know anything about
>   "package". It really does not matter for Stow if it is "software
>   package" or any kind of files, which are not considered software,
>   such as images, documents, or other non-software files.

Actually Stow's documentation precisely defines what it considers a
"package" to be:

    
https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/manual/html_node/Terminology.html#Terminology

and in that somewhat limited and unconventional / antiquated context,
it is technically correct to say that it is a package manager which is
capable of installing and deleting packages.

However, given that these days, "package manager" has strong connotations
of something more sophisticated, this is prone to cause some confusion,
which is why I already started to change the wording and am happy to
continue doing so.

>Please re-consider that, so that proper information is given to users.

No reconsideration is needed, just patches :-)