[arch-general] Kernel source URL change

[Leonidas Spyropoulos]

On 01/08/18, Andrey Vihrov via arch-general wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Recently the way kernel sources are retrieved was changed in the linux
> package [1]. Now the sources are fetched from
> https://github.com/archlinux/linux.
> 
> I see a few problems with this:
> 
> - Previously the list of applied patches was very transparent. You could
> immediately see that the kernel and kernel patch tarballs come from
> kernel.org, and view individual extra patches. Now the code comes from a
> non-kernel source, and cannot be verified as easily.
> 
> - Previously, if a new kernel version is released and is not yet in the
> repos, you could more or less take the official linux PKGBUILD, change
> one number and build it yourself. With the new layout it is not clear
> how to achieve this.
> 
> - An often cited Arch policy is to use software as released by upstream
> with minimal patching. What becomes of this policy if one of the core
> packages builds from a technical fork instead of upstream?
> 
> 
> If the patches from kernel.org will no longer be signed, as announced in
> [2], then an alternative would be git tags from [3] and [4]. It's
> understandable if it may make development harder, nonetheless it would
> allow for better transparency and follow upstream closer — just one
> user's opinion.
> 
> 
> [1]
> https://git.archlinux.org/svntogit/packages.git/commit/trunk?h=packages/linux&id=d0c4ab0716e0ae1fc058a83ccb02bde92885ced6
> [2] https://www.kernel.org/minor-changes-to-tarball-release-format.html
> [3] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/
> [4] https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git
> 
> --
> Regards,
> Andrey

Also now to build the package locally you download the whole repository
(~2 Gb compared to the ~110 Mb previously).

What's the reasoning behind this change?

Regards,

-- 
Leonidas Spyropoulos

A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is it such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
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