[CentOS-devel] progress?

Tue Feb 22 17:39:15 UTC 2011
Bill McGonigle <bill at bfccomputing.com>

On 02/19/2011 05:17 AM, Johnny Hughes wrote:
> ... and we change things OUTSIDE the SRPM to fix the
> problem.
>
> For example, here is a problem that I had to solve for 4.9 yesterday.
> There is a hidden build requirement that the package
> gnome-volume-manager requires perl-XML-Parser to be in the mock build
> root for the package to build properly.  This is NOT called out in the
> SRPM.  We need to add it to the tree to build this package ... BUT, we
> do not modify the SRPM to make this happen, we instead modify the build
> root, and submit a BUG upstream for them to potentially fix this package.
>
> Since our goal is NOT to change upstream packages at all, this would not
> show up in this "SVN" or "GIT" tree of all the packages ... since we do
> not change (or want to change) the package that upstream has produced.
> In any other project besides CentOS, the fix would take 1 minute, it
> would be to add a "Build Requires: perl-XML-Parser" to the spec file in
> the SVN repo and regenerate the SRPM package.
>
> So, this time consuming tree that you want guys want us to create is not
> worth a hill of beans and adds nothing for the vast majority of
> packages, since the SRPM is unmodified from upstream.

<delurk/>

This is a very helpful explanation; thanks Johnny.

How are these changes codified?  Is there, say, a 'BRPM' file, with a:

   BuildRootRequires: perl-XML-Parser

line in it?  If these files do exist, they could possibly be useful in a 
git tree for some.  Some may call those files the CentOS Special Sauce.

A script to automatically file upstream bugs based on those files' 
check-ins would seem like a potential timesaver.

Upstream SRPMS + CentOS Special Sauce + mock = buildable distro?  That 
would be an awesome start for a CentOS Spins project.  A scientific 
spin, for instance.

Just thinking out loud.  No doubt others have already gone further.

-Bill

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