[pacman-dev] Why can install files not be part of the sources?

[Allan McRae]

On 26/01/16 00:30, Dominik Fischer wrote:
> When a PKGBUILD specifies an install file that has to be downloaded as
> part of the source array, makepkg complains about the missing file
> instead of simply downloading it.
> 
> The wiki page [1] states that ".install files should not be included" in
> the source array, but I could not find and explanation why this policy
> is enforced. To me, it would make sense to point to an external
> installation script, for example to install desktop files, or maybe an
> upstream maintainer provides a suitable file directly. Is this an
> implementation issue or an explicit decision? Why are install files
> required to be locally present?
> 
> [1]: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/PKGBUILD#source
> 

I'd say this is an explicit decision.  The files required to package an
external source should all be locally available.

A