Virtual provides for files in /var/log

[Lennart Poettering]

On Thu, 18.07.13 15:47, Panu Matilainen (pmatilai at laiskiainen.org) wrote:

> >>I would suggest it, but it is not recommended by guidelines :( so I
> >>suggest some (not yet) standardized virtual provide, which will be
> >>more descriptive than "syslog-files"
> >>
> >>Vít
> >>
> >>[1] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines#File_Dependencies
> >
> >I guess this comment doesn't apply if we explicitly add Provides:
> >/var/log/messages to all packages that provide the file. Hmm, or maybe
> >no, I don't grok RPM well enough...
> 
> Well the guideline is really just a recommendation for optimizing
> yum behavior, nothing more. But yes, an explicit "Provides:
> /some/path" goes into the main repository metadata so resolving a
> dependency on that path doesn't require downloading the big bad file
> lists.

Hmm, Panu, but who does this exactly work? If at least one package
explicitly provides /some/path, and some others only implicitly provide
it, is the big bad file list download skipped? 

Which would mean either *none* of the providers shall explicitly provide
the file (which would be slow), or *all* of the provides explicitly
provide the file? If some would explicitly provide it, and others only
implicitly, then things would be broken?

Lennart

-- 
Lennart Poettering - Red Hat, Inc.