Re: Tutorial: using proposed source packaging format as non-root
> You are forgetting that when you run dpkg-source -x, it copies a
> .orig.tar.gz file to your directory. So there is no difference in
> disk space used.
Disk space wasn't the point -- just actual steps of work involved (and
by steps I mean "points of failure" as well, ie. more automation does
*not* replace simplifying the problem...) and that the two steps of
"dpkg -i src.dep; make ... unpack" were exact replacements for "wget
mirror:src*; dpkg-source -x src.dsc" [ignoring the additional
bookkeeping of course -- partially because it doesn't make anything we
currently do the old way easier, again ignoring the use of source
dependencies.]
> A stone age attitude, if you ask me. I can think of lots of cool,
> never-attempted-before applications that would benefit greatly from
Umm, then perhaps you *should* think of them, and tell the rest of us.
I'd rather we first solved the problems we're having now, than
inventing new and exciting problems :-) Remember that one of the
problems we're having is that package building is *complicated*.
That's partially why rpm keeps getting mentioned; for well formed
packages, you grab the spec file (*not* the srpm) and do rpm -ba, and
you're done (since rpm sucks down the tar files directly from the
upstream source, at least in theory.) I don't know that *that* is
actually a goal, but it's a good argument against adding *more*
bookkeeping/bureaucracy to a package build.
> This is a philosophical difference. I think dpkg could be very useful in
> user space for "channels" of information, sources, and a whole gamut
Sure -- but one has to be *very* careful to remember that the real
users actually use the machine to do *work*. Organizing for
organization's sake is a seductive trap (been there, done that.)
Remember that while debian does cater particularly to software-hacking
users (because (1) that's what free software is all about (2) they're
a lot like us, so we understand them) they aren't the whole universe
or even, I suspect, a majority of the debian users.
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