Re: pbuilder, and why not...
#include <hallo.h>
* Dirk Eddelbuettel [Sun, May 14 2006, 04:52:17PM]:
> Eduard Bloch <edi <at> gmx.de> writes:
> > > Right solution is to use pbuilder, which will:
> > >
> > > a) always ensure that package can be built using unstable
> > > b) keep your build environment clean
> > > c) keep your local system clean
> >
> > d) Need lots of disk space
> > e) Take ages to unpack
> > f) Add more complexity for establishing build environment
> > g) Help fragmenting your filesystem
> > h) Need extra work to be kept in synch with Sid
>
> I could hardly disagree more:
>
> d) is not necessarily true or all that bad as you may actually save space
> vis-a-vis a situation where you keep gazillion -dev packages on your system
> (cf original post in the thread).
Sounds like ~50 percent agreement with my statement.
> e) yes, it may add a minute here or there, but pbuilder _dramatically_
"A minute". In a minute, I can can recompile an average package several
times (with the help of ccache).
> increases your build reliability and saves you and the admins time as it
> prevents (build) bugs from propagating. Also, with proper uses of LVM and
Dramaticaly? You cannot guarantee there is no error by testing. But the
attitude you apparently try to protect is: we fake similar conditions as
good as possible and throw the crap created without much thinking into
it and we hope that the build success will be reproducible everywhere.
Don't get me wrong, pbuilder is a great thing for _final_ testing, but
not for repeative cycles in-between.
> snapshotting, you could reduce that time to very little or none.
Good point, but that needs even more disk space. Or does it use cloop nowadays?
> f) To paraphrase yourself: 'only in the had of the uneducated'. There are
> loads of docs and howtos on pbuilder.
How does that excuse the additional workload?
> g) Huh? It keeps a tar.gz somewhere. How's that unfragmenting.
Sure. And your host system outside just sits in the corner and waits for
pbuilder to be done. Oh, and some filesystems loose performance and
don't completely recover after files have been deleted.
> h) I call 'pbuilder update' once a day in a terminal window next to the one
> where I call 'wajig auto-download' to update my testing system. If that is extra
> work for you. I don't call that (pressing cursor-up once or twice, really) extra
> work.
Then put it into the cron job. You don't? Maybe because it needs
assistance? No, there is no work at all...
Eduard.
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