categories of files (was Re: Software installation opinions needed)

[Leslie Mikesell]

In article <1990Sep26.043825.26682 at maytag.waterloo.edu> gamiddle at maytag.waterloo.edu (Guy Middleton) writes:

>We have a very grandiose software installation doctrine here, and tend to
>subdivide yet further, into these categories:

The initial installation of a particular package is rarely a difficult
problem because at that point the rest of the system is likely to
be fairly stable and the installer can concentrate on the changes this
particular package is making.

The difficult part comes when (a) you upgrade the OS and the package
touches some of the base system files (perhaps replacing /bin/mail
with something reasonable on a sysV machine or the like) or (b) you
want to move a package in its current state to a different machine
(keeping initialized data files, etc.). How do you tell which
pieces belong to which package, and in what order to reconstruct
things?  

Les Mikesell
 les at chinet.chi.il.us