[arch-general] Why is README stripped from gawk package?
All, Just a question of why the README is stripped from the gawk package. It seems that should be placed in /usr/share/doc/gawk, but that directory doesn't even exist. It holds the developer information and instead of having that information as part of the package, I ended up stumbling around gnu.org to find it (which sent me to the savannah.git... source for it) Seems like a basic README should be in ../doc/pkgname for all packages. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.
Just a question of why the README is stripped from the gawk package. It seems that should be placed in /usr/share/doc/gawk, but that directory doesn't even exist. It holds the developer information and instead of having that information as part of the package, I ended up stumbling around gnu.org to find it (which sent me to the savannah.git... source for it)
Seems like a basic README should be in ../doc/pkgname for all packages. According to the PKGBUILD, nothing is being stripped. The Arch Linux package is just an archive of files produced by a script provided by upstream.⁽¹⁾ If the file isn’t present, it’s because gawk is not installing it in the first place.
If anything is missing, consider filing a bug report to gawk developers at <bug-gawk@gnu.org>. Cheers, mpan ____ ⁽¹⁾ https://github.com/archlinux/svntogit-packages/blob/5b7e021f9e8bc39cf7fb668b...
Am 09.01.22 um 06:10 schrieb mpan via arch-general:
If anything is missing, consider filing a bug report to gawk developers at <bug-gawk@gnu.org>.
Why should upstream follow Arch's rules when installing? It is the responsibility of the Arch maintainer to provide the README file in the right place -- when it is useful, as in this case. Regards, Uwe
On 09-01-2022 13:31, Uwe Koloska via arch-general wrote:
Am 09.01.22 um 06:10 schrieb mpan via arch-general:
If anything is missing, consider filing a bug report to gawk developers at <bug-gawk@gnu.org>.
Why should upstream follow Arch's rules when installing? It is the responsibility of the Arch maintainer to provide the README file in the right place -- when it is useful, as in this case.
Regards, Uwe
Archlinux package does install man pages and info pages of gawk. I did check the readme and found some information useful for a packager (like targets for printing manuals in different formats) , but nothing that stands out to me as useful for normal users. What information in the readme do you and OP feel is useful and not available through man / info pages ? Lone_Wolf
On Sun, 9 Jan 2022 13:31:16 +0100, Uwe Koloska via arch-general wrote:
Am 09.01.22 um 06:10 schrieb mpan via arch-general:
If anything is missing, consider filing a bug report to gawk developers at <bug-gawk@gnu.org>.
Why should upstream follow Arch's rules when installing? It is the responsibility of the Arch maintainer to provide the README file in the right place -- when it is useful, as in this case.
If the README is useful for the user who doesn't compile it herself, then it makes no sense to expect that packagers need to care about something upstream stripped, especially not if upstream is the GNU project. To my knowledge it is the GNU project that expects that everything necessary to build or run software is included by the source in an easy to understand way and in a way making it easy to get, hence forming an opinion what to include to a package, that is stripped by upstream shouldn't be needed. However, what do I miss that makes the README useful for end users? https://github.com/gvlx/gawk/blob/master/README To my understanding it contains information useful for somebody compiling or packaging it, but it's useless for the end user who installed it by a package.
On Sun, 9 Jan 2022 15:04:51 +0100, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
My apologies, it is seemingly way outdated. Anyway, the README/s of https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gawk/gawk-5.1.1.tar.gz https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gawk/gawk-5.1.1.tar.lz [...] don't provide really useful information aimed for end users either, right?
On Sun, Jan 09, 2022 at 13:31:16 +0100, Uwe Koloska via arch-general wrote:
Am 09.01.22 um 06:10 schrieb mpan via arch-general:
If anything is missing, consider filing a bug report to gawk developers at <bug-gawk@gnu.org>.
Why should upstream follow Arch's rules when installing? It is the responsibility of the Arch maintainer to provide the README file in the right place -- when it is useful, as in this case.
As others have stated, the README contains information only relevant for people who build awk, but not so much for the end users. Moreover, Arch mostly tries to distribute software with little or no modifications to the original source (unless absolutely required to make it work). So if upstream chooses not to install the README as part of `make install`, I don't think it's the responsibility of the Arch maintainers to change that. Cheers, Tinu
participants (6)
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David C. Rankin
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Lone_Wolf
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mpan
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Ralf Mardorf
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Tinu Weber
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Uwe Koloska