Packaging Committee Meeting Summary (2010-02-03)

[Richard W.M. Jones]

On Sat, Feb 06, 2010 at 12:24:08AM +0100, Kevin Kofler wrote:
> Paul Howarth wrote:
> > Wouldn't this problem be avoided if the SRPM was built in a buildroot
> > containing all of the buildreqs (like the binary RPMs are)?
> > 
> > It would be an extra step in the build process, but not a big extra step.
> > 
> > 1. Build SRPM in minimal buildroot to determine buildreqs (as currently)
> > 2. Populate buildroot with buildreqs (as currently)
> > 3. Rebuild SRPM in this buildroot (this is the extra step)
> > 4. Build binary RPMs in this buildroot (as currently)
> 
> This was discussed in the 2010-01-08 FESCo meeting (with people from rel-eng 
> also present). It was decided that this was not worth the effort and that 
> using macros in SRPMs in this way is not something we want to support.

Normally automation and lack of duplication is regarded as a good
thing.

Package X and mingw32-X are related.  The description of mingw32-X
could be something like:

  "This package is the library X, cross-compiled for 32 bit Windows.

   Do NOT install this package if you want the native library X
   (install package 'X' instead).

   Install this package only if you want to cross-compile a program
   which uses library X."

In almost any other area of computer science one would use a macro for
this.  RPM doesn't always expand macros in the %description section.
That's a bug in RPM and/or the build system.

Rich.

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