Packaging/Deploying web applications in rpm format

Question

Is it a good or a bad idea to package and deploy web applications in rpm format. Did anyone experiment with this. ?

Thank you

Answer 1

It is a good idea, especially if your application relies on specific packages/libraries. It is also relatively easy to do, since httpd config usually just scans /etc/http.d on RPM-based distributions.

It is also much easier for people to try out your application versus having to go through a usually multi-step install HOWTO's.

You can look at RedHat's webalizer RPM for a sample on how to package web apps as RPM's.