Possible attributes, based on the Linux Software Map and suggestions from
Stephen Wynne and David Ascher:

Required attributes:
Title: The name of the package.
Version: Version number or other designation. Use a date if
nothing else is appropriate.
(If storing everything in a database, the combination of (Title, Version) must
be usable as a key--thus, it has to be unique.)

Release-Date: YYYYMMDD (so it's trivially easy to sort by date)
Description: Short (10-15 lines?) description of the package.
Keywords: Relevant keywords.
Author: Author(s) of package. In RFC822 format (i.e.,
something that will fit into a From: or To: header of a
normal Internet mail message). Preferred format:
mailname@... (Full name)
Multiple persons may be given, one per line.

(Should there be a separate Maintainer attribute? For example, Niels
Moller originally wrote the GMP module, but I now maintain it. So
should the Author be me, or should there be both maintainer & author?
IMHO the purpose of the locator is to find software and contact the
people responsible *now*, not assign credit, so I'd say that
Author==Maintainer, & original authors should be credited in the
package's README.

Stray thought: We could also do what the Perl community does--people
are assigned codes like GWARD, so you can find all the stuff that
person maintains, and look up their personal info. That makes it
easier to update everything when you change email addresses...
)
Status: Maintained by the author, or unmaintained.
Primary-site: A specification of on which site, in which directory,
and which files are part of the package. First line
gives site and base directory, the rest give the sizes
and names of all files. Example:

Primary-site: sunsite.unc.edu /pub/Linux/docs
10kB lsm-1994.01.01.tar.gz
997 lsm-template
22 M /pub/Linux/util/lsm-util.tar.gz

(Should sizes be exact?)

Optional attributes:

Author-URL: The author's home page.
URL: URL of the package's home page.
Platforms: Any/all of Macintosh, Windows 3.1/95/NT, Unix, Unix
variants & versions.
Requirements: Lists other things that are required to use the
package. These may be titles of other packages in
this database, or explanatory phrases like
"Any Unix with a working mmap()."
Copying-policy: Copying policy. Use "GPL" for GNU Public License,
"BSD" for the Berkeley style of copyright, "Shareware"
for shareware, and some other description for other
styles of copyrights. If the use or copying requires
payment, it must be indicated.

Fire away...


Andrew Kuchling
amk@...
http://people.magnet.com/%7Eamk/

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