Better packaging for older hardware?

[Mike A. Harris]

On Sat, 18 Oct 2003, Paul Gear wrote:

>> Someone out there is now no doubt multiplying the size of the 
>> changelog by the number of subpackages and calculating the total 
>> wasted disk space in the rpm database when XFree86 is installed.  
>> If not, it'll likely be something to the effect of:
>> 
>> $ rpm -q --changelog $(rpm -qa |grep ^XFree86) |wc -c
>> 4433085
>> 
>> Or roughly 4.5Mb of your RPM database files is XFree86 
>> changelogs.  Wowsers.  ;o)
>
>Not a complaint, but why did they/you move changelogs from the doc
>directory into the RPM database?  It doesn't seem like a very necessary
>thing...

I/we did not and have not ever moved changelogs from doc
directory to rpm database.  You misunderstand what an rpm 
changelog is.

The rpm spec file contains an optional changelog, which is very 
highly recommended for everyone packaging software in rpm format 
to use, and it is mandatorily required by Red Hat and most other 
distributions for all software they ship, as well as most high 
quality 3rd party repositories.

The rpm spec file changelog deals with distribution packager 
changes to the packaging of the software, not changes to the 
upstream software itself.  The changelog that a given piece of 
software might include in it's source code, and might install 
into the doc directory is a totally different concept.  That log 
documents upstream changes to the software itself as it gets 
checked into CVS and turned into stable releases.  To keep with 
my previous example of XFree86, the XFree86 upstream changelog, 
is included in my XFree86 packaging and is located at:

$ dir /usr/share/doc/XFree86-4.3.0/CHANGELOG
-rw-r--r--    1 root       935244 Jun 11 13:37 /usr/share/doc/XFree86-4.3.0/CHANGELOG

That changelog is the one produced by XFree86.org to log the 
changes they make while developing XFree86.

The rpm spec file changelog, which gets stored in the rpm
database for each subpackage, is the list of
packager/distribution changes that relate to the packaging of the
software, including things like spec file changes, addition or
removal of new subpackages, addition or removal of patches along 
with an explanation of what a given patch is fixing, and other 
packager related changes to the packaging itself.

The two changelogs are totally different in concept, and the rpm 
spec file changelog has always existed in rpm and been stored in 
the rpm database, and a given upstream program's changelog - if 
one exists for a given piece of software has never been stored in 
the rpm database.

So your assumption that we have moved changelogs around and 
stuffed them in rpm's database is incorrect.




-- 
Mike A. Harris     ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris
OS Systems Engineer - XFree86 maintainer - Red Hat