[aur-general] AUR helpers and AUR standards

[Dave Reisner]

On Mar 2, 2012 6:31 AM, "Heiko Baums" <lists at baums-on-web.de> wrote:

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.

No, in fact if you weren't using something like yaourt, you wouldn't be
here wasting bits on the mailing list. Its entirely related, but like so
many other or your useless tirades, you completely fail to see the forest
from the trees.

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.

You keep speaking about policy like you're the one behind it. I'd
appreciate it if you would stop this behavior.

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.

Patches welcome for the former. It'd be awfully nice to see you doing
something productive in this community for a change.

D