[indiana-discuss] src packages

[Brian Banister]

As a user, I care about src packages because there are times when I  
want a particular feature compiled in which the maintainer did not  
want.  For example, I want bacula to use postgres rather than the  
default compiled MySQL.  Under debian based systems, it is easy to  
grab the source (with any patches used) plus build scripts to  
reproduce that package.  I can then make my config edits and build a  
new (custom to me) package to install.  This also works well for  
backporting a particular app to my current system.

Making this easy is a good thing.

I'm not saying I have anything to offer on _where_ the details are  
kept, just a plug that it be easy, and to take issue with the  
statement that users don't care about the source.

Regards,
Brian Banister

On Dec 11, 2008, at 3:23 PM, Jim Walker wrote:

> Shawn Walker wrote:
>>
>> I still believe it is not the right place to store this information.
>> Quite frankly, I wouldn't want us to be using what resources we  
>> have for
>> serving this content instead of the content we really care about:  
>> packages.
>>
>> I also think that this content will end up being duplicated, as I  
>> would
>> imagine that you would need a copy of all of this content somewhere  
>> else
>> anyway (such as a source code control repository).
>>
>> It would seem more logical to me to have pointers to wherever it is  
>> that
>> you're already hosting that content instead of duplicating it.
>
> +1
>
> I think it's a waste of storage and network resources to store the
> source tarballs in the ips repos. Especially if we have duplicate
> pkg versions.
>
> We store source tarballs locally to build the /pending
> and /contrib repos. We should just point to what we
> already have in place, which is consistent with the
> pkg binaries.
>
> Most users could care less about the source code. They want the
> functionality provided by the pkg. Period. Delivering it to them
> in the shortest amount of time should be one of our main objectives.
> Adding unused bits to the pkg will only slow them down.
>
> Cheers,
> Jim
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