Summary #

Linglong, an open source package format developed by UnionTech Software, is designed to manage, distribute, create a sandbox for packages, and integrate development tools, instead of using package management tools such as deb or rpm.

Problems with current package management #

1. Both deb and rpm are strongly-dependent package management systems and allow complex cross dependencies (or circular dependencies) between components, which makes maintenance a matter of great expertise. A little carelessness will lead to a complete system failure that cannot be repaired.
2. Installation dependencies and running dependencies are coupled so that multiple versions can hardly coexist. Although deb and rpm have provided several solutions to solve the multi-version coexistence problem, these solutions require changes in source code and are infeasible.
3. The Hook system is complex and has no restrictions, through which many operations can damage the system.
4. They have insufficient reliability, no redundant recovery design, and a lack of verification mechanisms. Once the package management system fails, the system can hardly be repaired.
5. The permissions of deb and rpm are loosely controlled with big security risks.
6. The current package updates do not support incremental updates, which is a great waste of resources.

Linglong advantages #

1. Improve usability and solve the dependency conflict problem of deb and rpm.
2. Perform the application permission management mechanism to strengthen security.
3. Support incremental updates of applications.

Comparison #