Arch Linux

iruel

Member

Registered: 2011-11-12

Posts: 2

Return to Space: Whatever happened to Gnuffy Linux?

Long ago there seems to have been some awesome Arch derivative called Gnuffy Linux. It had a bash-based package manager named Spaceman, which is pacman-compatible. Here's a quote that summarizes the thing:

Gnuffy can use any of Arch Linux’s repos in addition to its own, and can use the standard PKGBUILDs in addition to its own improved version of PKGBUILD, which includes some Gentoo-style USE flags and other enhancements. Packages on Gnuffy’s repos are GPG signed with the key of the packager, and Spaceman checks signatures.

Spaceman is a monster of a bash script, with over 9000 lines of code. Literally. There are just way too many features for me to talk about, so read up on Spaceman's full specification list if you're interested. The source code for Spaceman is here. If you're going to try it out, don't forget to get the compatibility patch.

The big feature in Spaceman is the USEflags, from Gentoo. "Basically, a useflag controls an optional build feature a source-code supports. If the useflag is set, the support will be included, if it is not set, the support will be left out." Useflags may be controversial, but there's no doubt that it can be quite useful in certain situations.

There are Gnuffy Repositories, which are GPG-signed user repos that anyone can make. Spaceman could install a binary from such a repo, or compile from the source file: ".src.pkg.tar.xz". This works similarly to srcman.

Also, it had something called Comamain, a program included with Spaceman which would automatically compile and update new packages, maintaining your packages for you.

It had a bash script that converted an Arch Linux install into a Gnuffy one I'd have more to say about this if I could find it... Does anyone have a copy? People do talk about it here: http://bbs.archbang.org/viewtopic.php?id=517

What happened to it? It seems to have dropped off the face of the earth sometime after 4/04/2011. That would be a shame, it seemed like an awesome project.

Does anyone have a link to it, or a copy of it's SVN? I'd like to check it out, maybe resurrect it if it has good features.

Installation Guide (outdated)
http://web.archive.org/web/201004210246 … stallation

IGuru's Controversial Review of Gnuffy:
https://igurublog.wordpress.com/2011/03/19/had-a-gnuff/

Allan

Pacman

From: Brisbane, AU

Registered: 2007-06-09

Posts: 11,503

Website

Re: Return to Space: Whatever happened to Gnuffy Linux?

What happened to it? It seems to have dropped off the face of the earth sometime after 4/04/2011. That would be a shame, it seemed like an awesome project.

I had a look at this a while back and it had not had any substantial SVN commits for a _long_ time before that.

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PGP Key: F99FFE0FEAE999BD | I develop pacman - buy me a drink!