Re: Request for rewiew: mbuffer-20050730

[Paul Howarth <paul city-fan org>]

Alexander Dalloz wrote:
> mbuffer is a raplacement for buffer with additional functionality: 
>       * display of I/O speed
>       * optional use of memory mapped I/O for huge buffers
>       * multithreaded instead of sharedmemory ipc
>       * multi volume support
>       * autoloader support
>       * networking support
>       * compatible command-line options
>
> This small tool is for instance very handy if you run dd to copy some
> raw data, like copying a partition. As dd lacks any progress display
> piping input into mbuffer and output back to dd you can follow
> processing. Example:
>
> tmp $ dd if=/dev/zero | mbuffer -m 1M | dd of=./foofile bs=1k
> count=102400
> in @    7.1 MB/s, out @    7.1 MB/s,   99 MB total, buffer  99% full
> 102400+0 records in
> 102400+0 records out
>
> spec file and src.rpm for review:
>
> http://www.uni-x.org/review/mbuffer.spec
> http://www.uni-x.org/review/mbuffer-20050730-1.src.rpm
>
> Comment: I uses "/bin" rather than "%{_bindir} to make it available
> together with dd even if /usr isn't mounted (emergency case).

Good:

- rpmlint clean
- package name correct
- spec file name correct
- package meets guidelines as far as I can tell
- license is GPL, correct in spec file
- text of license included in package
- spec file written in English
- spec file very simple, neat, and tidy
- source matches upstream
- source builds fine on FC4 and in mock for rawhide (i386)
- no explicit buildreqs
- no translations to worry about
- no shared libraries to worry about
- no relocations to worry about
- no directory ownership issues
- no duplicate files
- sensible permissions everywhere
- %clean section present and correct
- macro usage is consistent
- code, not content
- no large docs to worry about
- docs don't affect runtime
- no headers or libraries to worry about
- no pkgconfig files to worry about
- no scriptlets to worry about
- no subpackages to worry about
- package appears to run rather than segfault :-)
- required libraries for a /bin package all under /lib, not /usr/lib

Bad:

Source0 URL wrong. Instead of:
http://www.rcs.ei.tum.de/~maierkom/privat/software/mbuffer/%{name}/%{name}-%{version}.tgz 

use:
http://www.rcs.ei.tum.de/~maierkom/privat/software/mbuffer/mbuffer-%{version}.tgz
(expanding %{name} is just my cosmetic preference here)

Should probably BuildRequire: mt-st and openssl-devel for additional 
functionality. Otherwise, you get this from configure:
...
checking for mt... ./configure: line 2787: WARNING:: command not found
no
...
checking for library containing MD5_Init... no
checking for library containing mhash_init... no
checking for library containing MD5Init... no
configure: WARNING: could not find the mhash library containing the md5 
hash functions - md5 support disabled

Fix these and it's approved.

Paul.