[CentOS-docs] Re: Create page about rebuilding SRPMS and preparing RPM environment

Mon Sep 8 05:03:10 UTC 2008
Filipe Brandenburger <filbranden at gmail.com>

On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 15:53, R P Herrold <herrold at owlriver.com> wrote:
> I added a caveat on the first page as to
> 'redhat-rpm-config', which causes really herd to diagnose errors when absent
> (mentioned at my prime page)

Great, I added some more instructions on how to install it with yum
and what happens if it is already installed ("Nothing to do")

> The restriction to CentOS 5 is unneeded, and potentially confusing.  Please
> set up a xen instance and convince yourself that this is the case, and
> delete the limitation language.

Done.

> -- I also question the piecemeal addition of
> first make, and then gcc -- yum is well capable of skipping already
> installed packages, and handling multiple packages at once.

I did it like this because in some cases you need "make" but you don't
need "gcc", for instance, when building Python/Perl/PHP module
packages.

>  I am also a bit
> confused at the mention of 'checking' items to install in yum, which is a
> TUI tool without checkboxes.

What I meant is that you should see them in the list. I replaced
"check" with "verify". If you guys think that another verb would be
more appropriate, feel free to edit the pages to improve language.

> On the second article, I am really against the mention of multiple third
> party archives in that article.  I think it should NOT be in this artivcle
> at all.  It implicitly endorses some non-CentOS sources to the exclusion of
> others -- Dag, is to my mind, a much stronger and better packager than the
> average found in the second listed third-party archive.  My personal
> opinion, but that is the point -- this series need was presented as articles
> to address CentOS needs within CentOS confines.

Agreed. I removed the links, I only mentioned the fact that someone
might have success building from RPMs of derived distros or Fedora
(from which RedHat is derived/based) and I added another warning that
rebuilding and installing packages from other distros (even if close
to CentOS) is potentially dangerous and might damage your system, and
you should try to stick to base packages and recommended repositories
if possible. I think this captures what you said (with which I
certainly agreed), if not, please let me know how you would restate
it.

>
> In each article referring to Max RPM as a Bible, is just wrong except in the
> sense that one means 'something ancient'.  I would point solely to:
>   http://wiki.centos.org/PackageManagement/Rpm
> as a single point of content management, and leave it at that. that page
> describes some better external resources.  I request that change.

Agreed. Done.

If you have any more comments, let me know. Feel free to edit the Wiki
pages directly as well if you would like to, I certainly would not
mind that.

Regards,
Filipe