On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 10:36 AM, Allan McRae <allan@archlinux.org> wrote:
Sebastian Nowicki wrote:
Is running the package() functions required? I realise it is semantically correct, but isn't the typical use case for the -R flag simply to change metadata? In that case only the variables defined in the package() functions have to be read. I'm not familiar with the implementation so there might be a problem there.
It is usually best to rerun packaging, as fakeroot often leaves permissions in odd states after exiting. I've used -R before and produced a package with my own permissions rather than root.root.
To read the variables defined in the package function, we need to excue the package functions. So this is necessary for at least package splitting. My main use case for this is if an "install" command fails, or needs adjusted, then the packaging can just be run again. I have never had to just adjust metadata so I don't know if that is a common usage. Also, the packaging will take a fraction of the time that the building does (even for large packages it will be very small) so this should not be too much of an issue.
How about "Repackage contents of the package without rebuilding"? -Dan