FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - 28-Aug-2002 The OpenPKG project releases version 1.1 of the unique cross-platform software packaging facility. http://www.openpkg.org/ -- Munich, DE -- August 28, 2002 -- The OpenPKG project today announces the availability of the OpenPKG 1.1 software. A flexible and powerful software packaging facility, OpenPKG eases the cross-platform installation and administration of Unix software. Consolidating different vendor approaches into a unified architecture, it serves system administrators of large networks previously burdened by non-conformant systems. OpenPKG leverages proven technologies like Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) and provides an additional system layer on top of the operating system. With OpenPKG, a new and unique method of cross-platform software deployment is taking form. Compared with earlier releases, OpenPKG 1.1 offers even more. Previously with 167 released packages, the official OpenPKG repository has grown by over 60% to 274 software packages. Preexisting packages are in top form after upgrades to newer versions. Packages are also now divided into CORE, BASE, and PLUS categories for more accurate security assessment. Administrators have asked for more portability, and OpenPKG has responded by increasing the number of supported platforms. Previously on only three platforms, OpenPKG users now enjoy official support on FreeBSD 4, RedHat Linux 7, Debian GNU/Linux 2, Debian GNU/Linux 3, Sun Solaris 8 and Sun Solaris 9. Improvements in OpenPKG's inherently strong security model now provide more flexible user accounting, with finer granularity and control. Previous versions used only the "manager" and "nobody" users and groups. OpenPKG 1.1 adds the "superuser" and "restricted" users and groups. Packages make use of these additional accounts to better abstract security-sensitive code from generic functionality. OpenPKG 1.1 also encapsulates its software base even more by integrating a "sane" build environment into each OpenPKG instance. This prevents access to system components not residing in OpenPKG's well defined scope, and avoids package inconsistency between seemingly identical instances. Also useful in testing, an administrator can now expect really reproducible results from a package build. To relieve cautious administrators, OpenPKG 1.1 software packages do not alter system files anymore (like kernel parameters or /etc files). In cases where such alteration is needed, OpenPKG recommends changes that the administrator should manually undertake. Even such recommendation is avoided however, and OpenPKG takes this course only when it cannot provide the needed functionality inside the borders of its own instance. As always, the only evidence of an OpenPKG introduction are three system entry points (run-command scripts, cron table, and user/group additions). These changes are made only during bootstrapping a new OpenPKG instance, and all such changes are completely undone upon deinstallation of OpenPKG. During activation, all daemon packages inside an OpenPKG instance now pay attention to special enable switches. This new feature allows an administrator to deactivate a daemon by merely setting a switch variable to "yes" or "no", whereas previously a daemon package had to be completely deinstalled. To avoid the precarious editing of an OpenPKG specification file, "--define" RPM command line options are now honored during package build time. This allows an administrator to install software variants by building custom binary packages. The results of RPM queries include descriptions of all options that a package offers. Proxy packages are first supported in OpenPKG 1.1, and allow an administrator to reduce maintainance complexity through package reuse. Should packages in several OpenPKG instances depend on the same base package, it can now be installed only once in an arbitrary OpenPKG master instance. Dependent packages can refer to the common base package through natively installed proxy packages, created with the OpenPKG-specific RPM option "--makeproxy". HIGHLIGHTS OF OPENPKG * Entirely based on Open Source technology. * Portable across all major Unix platforms. * Official support for FreeBSD, RedHat, Debian and Solaris. * Minimum operating system intrusion. * Minimum overhead in software packaging. * Easy installation, updating and deinstallation of packages. * Over 270 software packages available. * Bundled with useful package preconfigurations. * Support for multiple system instances. * Support for proxy packages. * Abstracted run-command facility. ABOUT THE OPENPKG PROJECT OpenPKG is a software packaging facility for Unix computers, and targets the major server platforms FreeBSD, Linux and Solaris. While internally based on RPM version 4, OpenPKG is a self-contained system with minimal dependencies (no RPM preinstallation required) and installs itself by means of a tricky bootstrapping procedure. OpenPKG eases and controls the management of a large or diverse base of software across one or more of its supported platforms. OpenPKG is a project founded 2000 by Cable & Wireless Germany's Internet Services division. In January 2002 it was released by Cable & Wireless to the public as Open Source software. Since then OpenPKG is maintained and improved by its original developers and contributors from the Open Source community and is a mature technology in production use. OpenPKG is the brainchild of Ralf S. Engelschall, team leader of Development in Internet Services and principal author of numerous other widely used Open Source Software technologies like Apache SSL/TLS Engine (mod_ssl), Apache URL Rewriting Engine (mod_rewrite), GNU Portable Threads (Pth), GNU Portable Shell Tool (Shtool), and Website META Language (WML). MORE INFORMATION The OpenPKG Project Ralf S. Engelschall rse@openpkg.org +49-89-92699-251 (CET) +49-172-8986801 (CET)