make tag and %{?dist}

[Josh Boyer]

On Tue, 2005-05-03 at 23:22 -0400, Matthew Miller wrote:
> > With what I'm proposing, 'make tag' would expand %{dist} based on the
> > CVS branch it was run in, and the CVS tags would be different.  Now you
> > can use the exact same spec file for both branches (assuming there are
> > no functional differences), and builds can still occur.  Problem
> > solved.  
> 
> Okay, maybe I'm confused now. I don't understand why you would tie this to
> the (somewhat arbitrary and external) CVS branch rather than to the direct
> connection -- what release the system you build the package on is running.

For the actual RPM build, on the actual Red Hat build systems, this is
how it would be/is done.  That is where the "scary macro voodoo" that
Ignacio mentioned in another thread comes into play.

But, the process to get a package actually built on the Red Hat build
systems from Fedora Extras CVS requires the spec file, sources file,
patches, etc. to be tagged with a CVS tag.  That is how the build system
knows what to build when a build request is made on

http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Extras_2fFC4Status

See, http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Extras_2fUsingCvsFaq down in the
Hints section for where this is pointed out.

> > Exactly.  So if I am in the devel branch of Extras CVS, I better damn
> > well realize that any package built from there would have .fc4 in the
> > Release section of the RPM.
> 
> Ideally, if it's a spec file that can be built on multiple releases, you
> shouldn't have to realize anything.... it'd just always do the right thing,
> no matter where you got the spec file from.

I don't disagree with that for spec files in general.  But when one is
using Extras CVS, I don't think the expectation of building in the
correct directory (e.g. FC-3, FC-2, devel, etc) is too much.

So with what I'm proposing, packagers wouldn't need to hard code a
"%define dist .fcX" in their spec files.  They could simply use %{dist}
and the Red Hat build system will define it depending on which distro
it's being built for.

And for users that want to build everything themselves instead of
getting the RPMs from the Fedora servers, they would simply need to
choose the correct directory in their CVS checkout.

> 
> > I think we are missing one another's points.
> 
> Maybe. :)

It's late here and I'm tired.  Before I start rambling on incoherently,
I think I'll head to bed.  But I'll be back in the morning ;).

josh