Respecting backwards compatibility is more complicated than just never removing features from software. Sometimes less is more: extra features can be bad for maintenance, a source of bugs, or a source of vulnerabilities. Sometimes features are added as workarounds or hacks in lieu of a proper solution and serve no real purpose after a later update. It's highly unfair to the pacman devs to claim that removing a makepkg option is a slippery slope towards DRM, Microsoft, and the dark side. If you consider The Arch Way, the pacman update seems very much in-line with the distro. "Arch Linux defines simplicity as without unnecessary additions, modifications, or complications..." A few people have mentioned workarounds for --asroot, so it certainly isn't _necessary_ and the devs seem to think its continued maintenance would be a complication. "Simplicity of implementation, code-elegance, and minimalism shall always remain the reigning priorities of Arch development." This one speaks for itself. "Arch Linux targets and accommodates competent GNU/Linux users by giving them complete control and responsibility over the system." As mentioned previously, removing --asroot does not remove one's control over the system. At worst it is an inconvenience in an unusual corner case. Our competent users should be able to figure out how to live with the new pacman options. Arch has an especially complicated relationship with backwards compatibility. This isn't the first case of a breaking change in an update, and I think it's actually pretty minor in terms of impact. There's always an outcry when something like this happens, but as long as it doesn't violate Arch's philosophy I think we'll be okay. In keeping with semantic versioning, it would make sense to bump pacman's major version. Max
That the '--asroot' option was dropped is an anti-feauture in my opinion. The package developers introduced code so that you can't run it as root. What's the problem to _not check_ whether it's run as root or not?
I think this propably relays to this issue. When I try to actualize with packer as root, it fails because of --asroot and when I try to use it like I should, it simply tells me, everything would be up-to-date. [marcel@oompf ~]$ pacman -Qet | grep packer packer 20140810-1 [marcel@oompf ~]$ packer -Syu :: Synchronisiere Paketdatenbanken... core ist aktuell extra ist aktuell community ist aktuell aur ist aktuell :: Starte vollständige Systemaktualisierung... Es gibt nichts zu tun :: Synchronizing aur database... aur 18 18 [##############################]100% :: Starting full aur upgrade... local database is up to date [marcel@oompf ~]$ sudo packer -Syu :: Synchronisiere Paketdatenbanken... core ist aktuell extra ist aktuell community ist aktuell aur ist aktuell :: Starte vollständige Systemaktualisierung... Es gibt nichts zu tun :: Synchronizing aur database... aur 18 18 [##############################]100% :: Starting full aur upgrade... Aur Targets (3): btsync byacc-noconflict gengetopt Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y Edit btsync PKGBUILD with $EDITOR? [Y/n] y Edit btsync.install with $EDITOR? [Y/n] n makepkg: Ungültige Option '--asroot' The build failed. Edit byacc-noconflict PKGBUILD with $EDITOR? [Y/n] y makepkg: Ungültige Option '--asroot' The build failed. Edit gengetopt PKGBUILD with $EDITOR? [Y/n] n makepkg: Ungültige Option '--asroot' The build failed. local database is up to date
On Sun, Jan 4, 2015 at 7:48 PM, Marcel Kleinfeller
[...] it simply tells me, everything would be up-to-date.
Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y Edit btsync PKGBUILD with $EDITOR? [Y/n] y Edit btsync.install with $EDITOR? [Y/n] n makepkg: Ungültige Option '--asroot' The build failed. Edit byacc-noconflict PKGBUILD with $EDITOR? [Y/n] y makepkg: Ungültige Option '--asroot' The build failed. Edit gengetopt PKGBUILD with $EDITOR? [Y/n] n makepkg: Ungültige Option '--asroot' The build failed. local database is up to date
NACK. It doesn't just tell you everything was up-to-date. Don't rely on your tools to check for all errors in their dependencies. cheers! mar77i
Em 04/01/2015 16:48, "Marcel Kleinfeller"
I think this propably relays to this issue. When I try to actualize with packer as root, it fails because of --asroot
and when I try to use it like I should, it simply tells me, everything would be up-to-date.
[marcel@oompf ~]$ pacman -Qet | grep packer packer 20140810-1 [marcel@oompf ~]$ packer -Syu :: Synchronisiere Paketdatenbanken... core ist aktuell extra ist aktuell community ist aktuell aur ist aktuell :: Starte vollständige Systemaktualisierung... Es gibt nichts zu tun :: Synchronizing aur database... aur 18 18
[##############################]100%
:: Starting full aur upgrade... local database is up to date [marcel@oompf ~]$ sudo packer -Syu :: Synchronisiere Paketdatenbanken... core ist aktuell extra ist aktuell community ist aktuell aur ist aktuell :: Starte vollständige Systemaktualisierung... Es gibt nichts zu tun :: Synchronizing aur database... aur 18 18 [##############################]100% :: Starting full aur upgrade...
Aur Targets (3): btsync byacc-noconflict gengetopt
Proceed with installation? [Y/n] y Edit btsync PKGBUILD with $EDITOR? [Y/n] y Edit btsync.install with $EDITOR? [Y/n] n makepkg: Ungültige Option '--asroot' The build failed. Edit byacc-noconflict PKGBUILD with $EDITOR? [Y/n] y makepkg: Ungültige Option '--asroot' The build failed. Edit gengetopt PKGBUILD with $EDITOR? [Y/n] n makepkg: Ungültige Option '--asroot' The build failed. local database is up to date
Same happens here. Guys I've not found a "migration" how to on the forums neither a major comment in archs Web page. Probably because the error we are facing is due to the let's say exploitation of a feature from the system. But now we are in a situation were I could find no official guideline to solve it. What are the correct guidelines to adress it? Adding the ABSROOT=~/abs abs Seems also evil ie not a proper fix which also might backslash later. What could I and Marcel do in a first momment to sane our system? Regards, Victor
participants (4)
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Marcel Kleinfeller
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Martti Kühne
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Maxwell Anselm
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Victor Silva