[indiana-discuss] [pkg-discuss] src packages

[Danek Duvall]

On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 09:54:57PM +1300, Laszlo (Laca) Peter wrote:

> On Wed, 2008-12-10 at 11:09 -0600, Nicolas Williams wrote:
> > Our plan had been to include URLs to spec files in the pkg metadata.
> 
> That's useful for someone who wants to find the latest spec file,
> but not sufficient for rebuilding a package.  Generally, you need
> more than just a spec file: you need patches, possibly other sources,
> manual pages, etc.  They also change over time.
> 
> What I described is a feature I'm planning to add to pkgbuild.
> It gives parity with an existing svr4 feature (namely source packages
> that can be automatically rebuilt).  The OpenSolaris team can decide
> whether or not to use this feature, but I do think it's useful to have.

One major problem is that packages don't have a 1:1 correspondence with
source tarballs.  In particular, multiple packages can stem from a single
source base.  If each package tries to install that tarball, then either
you're wasting space by having multiple copies at different pathnames, or
you're violating packaging rules by having multiple packages deliver at the
same pathname.

We already have defined package metadata that allows you to reference the
sources needed to build the package, and tools can be built around that.
Putting the sources into the package by content is too specific to your
consolidation's construction methods.

Danek