I am really glad we have Lamar on this team :) This is precisely the information we need. I think planning this out correctly will be a big win in many ways.
At the same time, let's make sure we agree on some principles:
- upgrading a customized OpenACS will *not* be possible. This is just the way it is. With a data model, edited files, this won't be doable automatically.
- upgrading a centralized holding area is nice, but not that impressive, since it's just Tcl code (I suspect the holding area won't have a DB instance associated with it, right?).
- the real issue here is allowing people to quickly install OpenACS to get a web site up and running. It is a "booster" toolkit, not really an application that can easily be upgraded.
Thus, how acceptable/horrible would it be to create RPMs that provide only install capability, and not upgrade. The purpose is clear: to facilitate the initial installation. I think if we do that without making claims to other neato RPM features, we'll have made significant progress.
