No more kernel-source(code) ??? (was: rawhide report: 20040623 changes)

[alan]

On Wed, 23 Jun 2004, Chris Kloiber wrote:

> On Thu, 24 Jun 2004 01:23:38 +0200, Axel Thimm <axel.thimm at atrpms.net> wrote:
> > 
> > On Wed, Jun 23, 2004 at 07:20:32AM -0400, Build System wrote:
> > > kernel-2.6.7-1.448
> > > * Mon Jun 21 2004 Arjan van de Ven <arjanv at redhat.com>
> > >
> > > - make kernel-doc and kernel-sourcecode builds independent of eachother
> > > - disable kernel-sourcecode builds entirely, we'll be replacing it with documentation
> > >   on how to use the src.rpm instead for building your own kernel.
> > 
> > We just recently had the discussion of how many documented processes
> > will get broken with the kernel-source -> kernel-sourcecode
> > change. Not having it at all doesn't really improve that. ;)
> > 
> > What's the idea behind this? And what about people building external
> > kernel modules? For the reasons outlined in the previous thread on
> > this /lib/modules/`uname -r` is not adequate for that. Having the
> > kernel-source package change its name is one thing we can adapt
> > to (even though it was not necessary). Having it disappear for the
> > face of earth is another :(
> > 
> > Please, get it back!
> > --
> > Axel.Thimm at ATrpms.net
> 
> While I'm far from an expert, the headers needed to build 3rd party
> modules are now packaged with the kernel proper (that's one reason
> it's taking so long to install a new kernel nowadays). The
> kernel-sourcecode package is sort of redundant as the actual source is
> in the kernel*.src.rpm anyway, but can be built (as i did) by editing
> the kernel-2.6.spec and changing the line near the top to say "build
> sourcecode=1" instead of 0.

It is going to make life more difficult for those who need to modify their 
kernel for whatever reason.

When you install the kernel-source package, it installs the source in a 
known location with all the patches applied.

If you install the kernel src.rpm, it is installed in 
/usr/src/redhat/SOURCES (or whereever the rpm sources macro is set to) 
as a tarball and a pile of patches.  You can then use the spec file to 
build the source tree, but it will be put in an inconvienient location and 
may get wiped out if the clean option is habitually used.

This does not appear to be a useful change.  It makes it more difficult to 
get to the source code, not less.

Why was this change made?  It seems counter-productive to me.