This is a question that has been bothering me for a while, after realising that pacman, while being aufully close, isn’t actualy perfect. Here are my requirements:
Dependecie tracking:
pacman – Yes
apt-get – yes
rpm – Yes
Conflict tracking:
pacman – Yes
apt-get – Yes
rpm – Yes
Access to build (compile) enstructions:
pacman – Yes, via ABS
apt-get – Not as far as I know
rpm – As above
Downloads binary:
pacman – Yes
apt-get – Yes
rpm – Yes
Tracks user created source compiles:
pacman – Yes, via makepkg
apt-get – Yes
rpm – No
Repos must be resonable size (5000+) :
pacman (Archlinux) – Yes
apt-get (Debian) – Definatly
rpm (Fedora) – Yes
Flexible, with various options for things:
pacman – Yes, up to 5 options for install, remove and upgrade, with more non spesific ones.
apt-get – Yes, though not particularly flexible in my experience
rpm – Yes, though equaly inflexible
What I’m trying to say here is that pacman is the best! Actualy, what I’m saying is that pacman is good, but we must remeber how small in comparison it’s repos are to debians giant repos. It shows that they all do what you want, just some better than others
