[aur-general] AUR helpers and AUR standards

[Heiko Baums]

Am Fri, 2 Mar 2012 15:23:16 +0800
schrieb Oon-Ee Ng <ngoonee.talk at gmail.com>:

> As I understand it the reason the AUR doesn't support split packages
> is more along the lines of "hard to implement" and/or "noone has
> bothered to add it" rather than "the AUR shall not have split
> packages".

As long as there's not support for them in AUR for whatever reasons they
are not supported by AUR.

> If a workaround allows split packages to work fine without
> having to rewrite the AUR, that's a GOOD thing to me. Note: 'work'
> means with makepkg.

That does not mean only with makepkg. And even with makepkg there could
be several issues.

I have tried this workaround before for checking if it's an option for
my package linux-fbcondecor, since the package linux has become a split
package. But for very good reasons I change that package to a single
package.

A workaround is not a fix. A workaround can but doesn't need to work.
In this case it does not work.

> Helpers are only helpers. Nothing wrong with using them, but they're:-
> a) not official

Split packages in AUR are not official.

> b) not a suitable substitute for knowing how to download a tarball and
> run makepkg

I know how to download tarballs and run makepkg. But I want to easily
maintain my system and not to check every package individually. That's
what the AUR helpers are for. Otherwise I could switch to Windoze
again. In Windoze I have to check on the websites of every single
software if there's an update and to download and install it manually.

> If a user can't do b) AUR helpers do them a dis-service, IMO. Better
> to learn what's going on behind the scenes.

And what? I can do b), but if you have 100+ packages installed from AUR
then it's not possible anymore to keep your system up-to-date without a
helper.

And again, split packages are NOT supported by AUR, a workaround is NOT
a fix, so it's NOT the helper's fault that they can NOT handle split
packges. They just can NOT find the subpackages of a split package on
AUR, because AUR does NOT show them, because AUR does NOT support split
packages.

> I've used yaourt and bauerbill before, and they DO make things easier,
> but if we ever reach the point that a large group of users only know
> how to use the AUR through helpers Arch would be a very different (and
> worse) place.

That's a totally different topic and has nothing to do with this split
package issue. That's the reason why the AUR helpers are not officially
supported and won't be moved to [community]. Btw., this is the only
reason for that.

Just that simple. Either build support for split packages into AUR or
just don't upload split packages to AUR, not either with such a dirty
workaround. And, yes, it is dirty.

Heiko