Goals

• Maintainability
• Portability
• Security
• Reuse

Features

• open format
• dependency
• file conflicts
• checksuming
• signatures
• multi-platform
• source/binary
• remote access
• autoupgrade

State of the art

• tar like packages
• pkg (Solaris, DU)
• ports (BSD)
• RPM
• debs (Debian)
• Next

Need for unification

Unification on Linux

• extract core functions from DEB and RPM
• use an XML based format
• allow specific extensions
• write down the specification

=>Submit it to LSB

Current status

• The set of core features have been extracted
• The principle of the Markup are clear
• RedHat/Debian/... individuals have accepted it

Roadmap

• Finish the design
• Get early implementations
• Submit it to LSB
• Deployment (support in DEB/RPM)

Future

• Metadata databases
  • Distributions
  • Mirrors
  • Contributors (signing keys)
• Lookup tools
• Certification mechanism
• Automated upgrade