Re: New directive for %files section (%exclude)

[Michael Jennings <mej kainx org>]

On Tuesday, 18 September 2007, at 12:43:16 (-0300),
Rodrigo Barbosa wrote:

> >  %{_libexecdir}/mod_*.so
> 
> This is such a bad practice I almost cried from reading this
> e-mail.

If that's the "worst" thing in his spec file, he's off to a great
start.

> NEVER do this. Ever.

There are numerous good reasons to do something like this.  I won't go
into them, however.

> If you reuse your specfile for a new version of the package, you
> will completely loose (developer) control of which files are in your
> package.

An interesting, but false, claim.

If one is such a fascist packager that one insists on explicit naming
of every file to be included in a package, one should probably ask
oneself at what point one's dogma has ceased to be an asset.

The purpose of packaging is to organize and manage, not to dictate.
If you are so concerned with the changes occuring between releases of
an upstream package, perhaps you shouldn't be redistributing that
package.

Michael

-- 
Michael Jennings (a.k.a. KainX)  http://www.kainx.org/  <mej kainx org>
Linux Server/Cluster Admin, LBL.gov       Author, Eterm (www.eterm.org)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 "Basically there are no known XFree86 3.3.x memory leaks.  If you
  think you've found one, you probably haven't."
                                  -- Mark Vojkovich, XFree86 Developer