[arch-general] Ye Olde Package Manager

[Brendan Long]

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..