I have some experience in this and have been planning to do a cross-OS repo like OpenCSW (blastwave) for Linux-based OS:es. My approach would be to build packages for fedora using a prefix (like OpenCSW/Blastwave use /csw as a prefix). They I would test the package in other OS:es in order to figure out if it lacks some dependencies there, and then port the Fedora packages with those dependencies into my repo (by adding the prefix to the build and install locations).
This may look like overkill, but in the long run it would be much simpler to maintain. One would work with a single distribution during the development and just test on other distributions. Porting the dependencies rather than using what's locally available may also make it easier to avoid platform-specific bugs that may turn out to be a result of linking to old or forked libraries. But most notably if the repo:s dependencies are complete enough running under most distributions will be quite painless.
If this seams acceptable for your project needs then I think OpenNOP are a good place for me to start. I already ported Azureus and some of its dependencies.
For me Fedora and CentOS would be the main platforms to support, because I want to switch from using Fedora to using CentOS. Debian-based distros could be supported either using Alien or YUM/RPM, i suspect that if Debian works so will Ubuntu and most other debian-based distributions. I would prefer using YUM/RPM on all platforms but I can see why some may have a problem with that.
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I have some experience in this and have been planning to do a cross-OS repo like OpenCSW (blastwave) for Linux-based OS:es. My approach would be to build packages for fedora using a prefix (like OpenCSW/Blastwave use /csw as a prefix). They I would test the package in other OS:es in order to figure out if it lacks some dependencies there, and then port the Fedora packages with those dependencies into my repo (by adding the prefix to the build and install locations).
This may look like overkill, but in the long run it would be much simpler to maintain. One would work with a single distribution during the development and just test on other distributions. Porting the dependencies rather than using what's locally available may also make it easier to avoid platform-specific bugs that may turn out to be a result of linking to old or forked libraries. But most notably if the repo:s dependencies are complete enough running under most distributions will be quite painless.
If this seams acceptable for your project needs then I think OpenNOP are a good place for me to start. I already ported Azureus and some of its dependencies.
For me Fedora and CentOS would be the main platforms to support, because I want to switch from using Fedora to using CentOS. Debian-based distros could be supported either using Alien or YUM/RPM, i suspect that if Debian works so will Ubuntu and most other debian-based distributions. I would prefer using YUM/RPM on all platforms but I can see why some may have a problem with that.