On 01/16/2011 03:10 AM, C Anthony Risinger wrote:
yeah i've been around long enough to get the general vibe... but really... do you actually _enjoy_ making packages? do you like it when things break (even if not often, i'm not bashing arch developers or anyone else here) because of small version mismatches/typos/etc. due to the constant requirement for human interaction every step of the way? do you appreciate the system requiring an unknown amount of your (limited) time each day you decide to update? don't you ever wish you could just say "hey computer 'ol pal, aggressively follow upstream source for package X and merge remote user Y's with the local configuration, unless either requires changes to package Z -- then ask me first, cuz i run the show here"?
I actually hate making packages, which is why I like the Arch system. I like how if you know how to install a program from source, you know how to make an Arch package. In general, if I need to make a package, I copy a random PKGBUILD from abs, change the top couple lines, and then set the build section to: ./configure --some-options make install It's not fancy, but it has two advantages: * It's fast to write * It installs the program in the way that upstream designed it to be Also, no matter how good a program you can write to automatically follow upstream, I don't always trust upstream ;) It's nice to have the Arch devs make sure something works for me..