[Fedora-packaging] Are brackets around macros required?

[Jonathan Underwood]

On 18 August 2011 21:49, Christopher Aillon <caillon at redhat.com> wrote:
> The point is that many specs need something like %{name}v%{version} or
> %{name}config but NOT %{namev}%{version} or %{nameconfig}.  Without
> brackets, they would be parsed as the latter which would not be the
> intended result (don't forget many packagers are not programmers by nature).
>
> I would support explicitly making usage of brackets on macros a SHOULD
> item for packaging guidelines/reviews.

Fully agree, fwiw.

IMO, the guiding principle should be the answer to the question "what
style would most enable another packager to pick up the spec file and
fix problems with it". Knowing the intimate low-level workings of the
spec file parser should not be a requirement for maintaining any
package in Fedora when there are available syntaxes which negate the
need for that intimate low-level knowledge.