Re: Paranoia, "pristine sources", turnkeys, compiling, configuration
adavis@netpci.com <adavis@netpci.com> wrote:
> This suggests to me that at least part of what the Debian developers
> are doing is somehow redundant, when it comes to well written software
> that is set up to compile of a number of systems. I did not claim that
> there are not packages that I have balked at, or that didn't compile.
> In such cases I have found debian packages HIGHLY useful. In fact, I
> have not been able to set up sendmail or smail properly, even from the
> debian package, without considerable work. But most debian packages,
> happily, drop right in. And uninstall neatly.
In an ideal world, either:
(a) the debian package format would be supported by the package author, or
(b) compilation and installation for debian package building is trivial.
Note that the debian package system addresses more than compilation
and installation: it also addresses release engineering (stuff you
worry about when you have a lot of machines to administer but not
much time for any individual machine). Debian doesn't address all
aspects of release engineering (for example, no one tests debian
for clean downgrades, to back out of a problem), but there's a lot
of ground to cover and we're just getting started.
Anyways, I expect that a lot of software authors would prefer to leave
release engineering to someone else.
But you do have a point: where we see a way that we can help out the
author in making a package easier to compile or install, it's a
good idea to offer assistance.
--
Raul
--
TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to
debian-devel-request@lists.debian.org .
Trouble? e-mail to templin@bucknell.edu .
Reply to: