[desktop-discuss] One thing I really like about the JDS build system (was: my sfw experience)

[Eric Boutilier]

On Tue, 20 Jun 2006, Laszlo (Laca) Peter wrote:
> ...
> I'm hoping to start a constructive discussion that will lead
> to improving the SFW/CCD build environment and making it
> easier for other people to contribute.  ...

Having recently contributed to the spec-files-extra repository, here's one
thing I've discovered about the JDS build system that's really appealing:
One can quickly do a preliminary smoke-test of most freeware apps, and at
the same time (this is the important part) turn out corresponding SVR4
packages -- both binary and source.

It seems to me that being able to quickly generate packages early-on is
really useful. It's sort of like being able to reach base-camp really
fast; in other words, getting to where shared work -- like evaluating,
testing, custom-fitting -- can more easily be done.

I'm finding that getting to "base-camp" can take as little as 10-15
minutes for apps where ./configure; make; make install works unmodified.
Here are the steps I use: Generate an initial spec file for the app using
a script + template that takes five variables (name, version, description,
source, compression-type); let pkgbuild -bi do its thing against the spec
file (configure, compile, fake install); inspect the paths/files created
by pkgbuild -bi and manually edit the %files block accordingly (controls
file/dir modes, owner, etc.); let pkgbuild -ba do its thing to generate
the source and binary packages.

Eric