Re: Finding a source package
[ Please don't Cc me on replies to a public mailing list ]
<treacy@debian.org> (James A. Treacy) writes:
> > <treacy@debian.org>(James A. Treacy) writes:
> >
> > > Should apt have to download the dsc file for a package before it
> > > knows what the source files are?
> >
> > Why on earth not? If it's going to download the source, the .dsc file
> > is part of the source and has to be downloaded anyway.
>
> It is clearly much more efficient if the .dsc files don't have to be
> retrieved.
Eh? Have you ever used dpkg-source? The .dsc files _have_ to be
retrieved because they're an essential part of the source package.
(In any event .dsc files are usually no more than several hundred
bytes; hardly worth making a polava over)
> > Then they have 2 options:
[...]
> These are both hacks (in the bad sense of the word. Kluge is a better
(Kludge even)
> word, but many people won't know it).
No; (1) is a kludge, (2) is a perfectly valid solution and poses no
real problems that I can see, as opposed to allowing multiple source
versions of the same package which poses lots of problems for little
or no gain.
[And I'm speaking as a porter; multiple source versions of the same
source and with the same name would give me the mother of all
headaches.]
--
James
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