112 lines
3.5 KiB
HTML
112 lines
3.5 KiB
HTML
<html>
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<head>
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<title>PackageKit</title>
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<link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" type="text/css" media="screen"/>
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</head>
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<body>
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<table align="center" class="title">
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<tr>
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<td><img src="img/packagekit.png"/></td>
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<td width="95%" valign="middle"><p class="title">What is PackageKit?</p></td>
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<td><img src="img/packagekit.png"/></td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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<p>Back to the <a href="index.html">main page</a></p>
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<h1>What is PackageKit?</h1>
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<p>
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PackageKit is a system designed to make installing and updating software
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on your computer easier.
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The primary design goal is to unify all the software graphical tools
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used in different distributions, and use some of the latest technology
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like PolicyKit to make the process suck less.
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</p>
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<p>
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The actual nuts-and-bolts distro tool (yum, apt, conary, etc) is used by
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PackageKit using compiled and scripted helpers.
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PackageKit isn't meant to replace these tools, instead providing a
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common set of abstractions that can be used by standard GUI and text mode
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package managers.
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</p>
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<p>
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PackageKit itself is a system activated daemon called
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<code>packagekitd</code>.
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Being system activated means that it's only being run when the user is
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using a text mode or graphical tool, and quits when it's no longer being
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used.
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This means we don't delay the boot sequence or session startup and don't
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consume memory when not being used.
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</p>
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<p>
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<code>gnome-packagekit</code> is the name of the collection of graphical
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tools for PackageKit to be used in the GNOME desktop.
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There are also QT applications being designed, although these are not
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fully functional yet.
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</p>
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<p>
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<img style="float: left" src="img/dialog-information.png" alt="[NOTE]">
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By default, PackageKit uses PolicyKit for user authentication. This
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means that you, as an admin, can specify with fine-grained control
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what your users can and cannot do. For instance, an admin could
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specify that unprivileged users can update the system and do
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searching, but are not allowed to install or remove packages. For
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home users it's typical to ask the user for their own, or the
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administrator's "root" password. With PolicyKit, all these options
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are possible.
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</p>
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<p>
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Use cases for PackageKit exist for the following scenarios:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Boot time security updates</li>
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<li>Installing files automatically, e.g. openoffice-clipart</li>
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<li>Installing new features, e.g. smart-card readers</li>
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<li>Allowing unprivileged users to install software in a corporate
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build</li>
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<li>Opening unknown file formats</li>
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<li>Removing dependencies for files</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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More details can be found on the wiki.
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</p>
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<p>
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PackageKit and gnome-packagekit are GPLv2+ licensed. This means that
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you can redistrubute and/or modify PackageKit and gnome-packagekit
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under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
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Free Software foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
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option) any later version. See the license information included with
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the software for more details.
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</p>
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<p>
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What PackageKit is not:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>A huge daemon with lots of dependencies.</li>
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<li>100% API stable. The API may change a little until we ship
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1.0.0</li>
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<li>Targeted to a particular architecture or platform.</li>
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<li>Produced by any one vendor. There are many contributors helping to
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get this done.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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Formally, PackageKit is a D-Bus abstraction layer that allows the
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session user to manage packages in a secure way using a cross-distro,
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cross-architecture API.
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</p>
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<p>Back to the <a href="index.html">main page</a></p>
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</body>
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</html>
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