[Bug 1497594] New: Review Request: flashrom - Switch to using git snapshots

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1497594

Bug ID: 1497594
           Summary: Review Request: flashrom - Switch to using git
                    snapshots
           Product: Fedora
           Version: rawhide
         Component: Package Review
          Severity: medium
          Assignee: [e-mail]
          Reporter: [e-mail]
        QA Contact: [e-mail]
                CC: [e-mail]

Spec URL: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bz3WBh8gVeIuZ3JGRWFndFIybFE
SRPM URL: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bz3WBh8gVeIuMFhqN0FidVhodUk
Description: The Flashrom project recently switched to using Git with Gerrit
which enables us to use convenient auto-generated snapshots.

Koji build: https://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/taskinfo?taskID=22203765

Fedora Account System Username: dhendrix

This is my first package submission, so I need a sponsor. Since my employer
uses CentOS and this will be used for my work I plan to continue maintaining
this package for the foreseeable future.

It's also worth noting that I'm a maintainer of the upstream flashrom project
and have been involved with it since 2004
(https://review.coreboot.org/cgit/flashrom.git/commit/?id=3770a1132ee0e43836e...).

[Bug 1497594] Review Request: flashrom - Switch to using git snapshots

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1497594

David Hendricks  changed:

What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Blocks|                            |177841 (FE-NEEDSPONSOR)

Referenced Bugs:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=177841
[Bug 177841] Tracker: Review requests from new Fedora packagers who need a
sponsor

[Bug 1497594] Review Request: flashrom - Switch to using git snapshots

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1497594

Peter Lemenkov  changed:

What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 CC|                            |[e-mail]
             Blocks|177841 (FE-NEEDSPONSOR)     |

--- Comment #1 from Peter Lemenkov  ---
Unblocking FE-NEEDSPONSOR - I've just sponsored David.

Referenced Bugs:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=177841
[Bug 177841] Tracker: Review requests from new Fedora packagers who need a
sponsor

[Bug 1497594] Review Request: flashrom - Switch to using git snapshots

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1497594

Peter Lemenkov  changed:

What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 CC|                            |[e-mail],
                   |                            |redhat-bugzilla@linuxnetz.d
                   |                            |e
          Component|Package Review              |flashrom
           Assignee|[e-mail]    |[e-mail]

--- Comment #2 from Peter Lemenkov  ---
Since flashrom is already packaged, there is no need to go through a standard
"new package" procedure. So I changed component to flashrom.

[Bug 1497594] Review Request: flashrom - Switch to using git snapshots

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1497594

Neal Gompa  changed:

What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 CC|                            |[e-mail]
            Summary|Review Request: flashrom -  |Switch to using git
                   |Switch to using git         |snapshots for flashrom
                   |snapshots                   |

[Bug 1497594] Switch to using git snapshots for flashrom

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1497594

--- Comment #4 from David Hendricks  ---
Re #3: Good point - I moved the files to Dropbox which supports direct download
links (no preview) and tested the following URLs using wget:

Spec URL: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/4wmjrqugrjito8c/flashrom.spec
SRPM URL:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/711bpatfyb251e1/flashrom-0.9.9-6.2017091...

[Bug 1497594] Switch to using git snapshots for flashrom

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1497594

--- Comment #5 from Alex G.  ---
Hi David,

And welcome to the evil blue side.

It appears your specfile talks two the build system using two separate
mechanisms. One is flashrom_cflags environment variable, and the other one is
editing the Makefile.* on the-fly. For the sake of readability, you should
chose one mechanism and stick to it. I'm not sure if the flashrom buildsystem
needs modifications to support this, but since you are the upstream maintainer,
I'm certain this is trivial for you to do.
> $(echo "VERSION=%{shortcommit}" > Makefile.version)
> $(echo "MAN_DATE=$(date -u "+%Y-%m-%d")" >> Makefile.version)

This will give the date of whenever a package was built, not when the software
was last released/modified, which I assume is the intention of this variable.
Different packages (x64, x86, arm ,etc) end up with different values here,
because they are not built at the same time.

My third point is that I'm not convinced it's good practice to package
snapshots. I understand upstream's desire for users to always have the latest
git, however, from a package maintainer point of view, we prefer upstream
releases over snapshots. If you think that flashrom is adding features at a
fast pace, I believe it would be smarter to have upstream releases at shorter
intervals.

Hope this helps.

[Bug 1497594] Switch to using git snapshots for flashrom

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1497594

Neal Gompa  changed:

What    |Removed                     |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                 CC|[e-mail] |
                   |project.org                 |