3. Possible Next Steps: Where is RIB Now?
Note that the RIB is “just” a federation of relational databases with a rather simple database structure (a few tables)
- RIB software emulates RDBMS with file systems using classic Perl CGI technology
Current RIB offers adequate solution for the current software repository needs of the HPCC community and the package is in fact used by a growing number of software libraries in the HPCC area such as HPC-Netlib, PTlib, and CSIR.
To broaden the RIB customer base, one would need to improve the underlying software infrastructure, which is currently based on somewhat dated Web'95 technologies.
Required improvements include: concurrency control, RDBMS based persistency support, electronic licensing, file/package/repository mirroring and mobility,remote execution support etc.