[aur-general] Split packages

[Chi Hsuan Yen]

On Tue, Aug 23, 2016 at 10:38 PM, Levente Polyak <anthraxx at archlinux.org>
wrote:

> On August 23, 2016 3:11:55 PM GMT+02:00, Chi Hsuan Yen via aur-general <
> aur-general at archlinux.org> wrote:
> >At first I used split packages for python-* packages in my AUR repo.
> >However, since pacman commit e8deba3b87784ca14c9afc908046f36a3ad7578c,
> >[1][2] there's no way to build a subset of split packages. That is,
> >people
> >who use Python 3 (or Python 2) only need to install both Python
> >versions to
> >build my package. It would be nice if I can use a single PKGBUILD and
> >build
> >only a subset of split packages with makepkg.
> >
>
> Effectively (without any intend to blame or offend you) but you are very
> aware of this and simply ignore it on purpose.
>
> Its not really ideal to not use split packages just because you don't
> want people who build it to install both variants of the dependencies.
> If people don't want those in your/their system, then you/they should
> build it in a chroot (which I recommend either way).
>
>
Using clean chroots is definitely the best way to build a package, while it
may not be practical for ordinary users. Installing a chroot takes quite a
few minutes, lots of network usage and several hunders of megabytes, which
is a high burden if I just need a package with 1MB.


> I get your point but I still recommend unifying those into a split
> package and conform decisions that are made. I don't see where building
> both variants is too much of a hassle. Those should be optimized in a way
> to be as sane related to structuring and building as possible and not how
> convenient it is to install it via wrapper X directly out of the AUR.
>

Others may not agree, but for me making things easy to use is as important
as making things clean. With that in mind, I always try my best to keep my
AUR packages building fine in clean chroots as well as "dirty" systems with
numerous unnecessary packages.


> It should be considered more like a staging area for the regular
> repositories, following its rules. It's always a hassle to invest a day
> before being able to move a package from the AUR just because they follow
> something else like not using split packages etc.
>
> cheers,
> Levente
>

Not quite agree. How AUR works is different from how official repositories
do. How packages are installed is an important factor in those differences.