Re: pbuilder - a personal builder for debian packages
On 27-Aug-01, 17:35 (CDT), Wichert Akkerman <wichert@wiggy.net> wrote:
> Previously Steve Greenland wrote:
> > You know, it's okay if people don't want to package home-built
> > utilities, but when they then snark at those who are forced to
> > recreate them, it's kind of mean. Not everybody reads every message on
> > debian-devel, or hangs out continuously on #debian.
>
> I have no clue what caused you to write that rant..
Because I've seen it more than once (not particularly from Wichert,
all of the Debian cabal (TINC) do it): Person A says "I've done X, and
packaged it, here's where it is." and person B replies "Why didn't you
just use Y? It does function X." but Y
- isn't packaged
- isn't documented
- isn't mentioned on any www.debian.org web page (no, I don't count
archived list mail as "on a web page")
- often exists in N different version, one for each installation
Despite all this, person A is castigated for re-inventing the wheel. Well
surprise, surprise.
(Similarly, people are sometimes criticized for not knowing about a
procedure that is only documented in an e-mail written 8 months ago.)
> anyway sbuilder is in the wanna-build CVS tree which contains the
> buildd that various architectures have been using for yours.
And why should any general developer really know about it? Sure, it
gets mentioned in occasional e-mails, but unless one actually runs an
auto-builder, it's unlikely that one is aware of what exactly it does, or
how it could be useful.
> The fact that it's not very well documented or packages is due to lack
> of manpower, and anyone willing to work on that is very much invited
> to do so.
Then put it in the WNPP list. It will be a lot more visible than it is
buried in some CVS system.
As I said in my first message, I'm NOT objecting to the fact that
sbuild(er?) is not packaged and documented -- it's highly specialized
and has a relatively small potential audience, and people have work to
do. But when someone creates a similar tool to do a similar job, and
offers it up publicly, for you to say (effectively) "But I've already
got a tool that does that, look, it's here in my /usr/local" is pretty
unfair.
Anyway, that's why I ranted.
Steve
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