Re: SuSE RPMs available for PostgreSQL 7.4

On Wednesday 19 November 2003 01:29 pm, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> It would imply that there is some general or master SRPM and the other
> ones are alternative versions.

Read the spec file for the SuSE RPM. Then reply. Even Reinhard refers to the
one SRPM I upload as being the 'official' SRPM. Yes, there is a general or
master SRPM, and it is our SRPM.

> So people looking for a SRPM would easily
> be led to download the wrong one. In fact, they are parallel variants, so
> a parallel directory structure seems right to me.

No, they are not parallel variants. And I am clear in the wording I use in
the announcement that the user's distribution-distributed RPM should be used
unless there is a pressing need to do otherwise. It has now been this way
for four years. Our RPMset is as much for the distributions to use as a
template as it is for end users, and this has worked in practice fairly well
for four years.

My effort has been expended not in directly building for every distribution,
but for providing a starting point that the distributions can use and modify
to their heart's content. By keeping the PGDG set in that role, the various
distributions have a common starting point, so at least postgresql works
pretty much the same way across distributions. The copyright notices and
comments found, in Red Hat, SuSE's, and others RPM specfiles tell the tale to
all who care to read.

> Another problem is that changing the directory layout would make the
> automatic mirroring impossible.

Please explain.

> Realistically, a distribution independent source RPM is unrealistic. It's
> a bit sad, but the market has decided.

I have made the source RPM be distribution independent before, for Great
Bridge. A single source RPM built on SuSE, Red Hat, TurboLinux, Mandrake,
and Caldera. The spec file was not very clean, but the system worked OK at
the time. Given the time to do it, I could do it now. Just don't have quite
the time, nor do I have the build farm that it requires (Great Bridge did,
and I used their build farm to do it). Yes, it is hard to do it right.

So I've been down this road before. FWIW, I've read Reinhard's spec file, and
it's pretty close to distribution independent now. There are some macros he
uses I dont yet understand, but judicious use of conditional defines could
make another fully distribution independent source RPM, possibly building
from his work.
--
Lamar Owen
Director of Information Technology
Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute
1 PARI Drive
Rosman, NC 28772
(828)862-5554
www.pari.edu