Merging in CVS

[Jeff Pitman]

On Friday 10 June 2005 04:05, John Dennis wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-06-09 at 15:57 -0400, Christopher Aillon wrote:
> > On 06/09/2005 03:49 PM, John Dennis wrote:
> > > No, they must be distribution unique. Why? Each distribution has
> > > a different buildroot, e.g. different libraries, header files,
> > > etc. The same src rpm does not produce the same binary rpm, the
> > > labeling and identification of the binary rpm is a product of the
> > > spec file.
> >
> > The NVR must be different between distribution releases.  But I
> > think that can be attained without different spec files.  See
> > http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/DistTag
>
> Good point Chris, %{dist} does get you out of this mess. Just
> remember its only available in extras using the extras build system,
> take it out of that environment and you've got the aforementioned
> problem.

The CVS tagging and branching is only available in its own environment.  
Worse, people will grab the wrong spec for the wrong distribution 
(buildrequires difference or whatever).  With %if exception processing 
it's all in one file ready to be tweaked at a moments notice.  If you 
take it out of extras, it'd be trivial to add a %define dist ... at the 
top of the spec.  

It's all about shifting the complexity of the problem to a different 
solution space.  You either solve it with tagging/branching/different 
directories or you solve it with %if.  For 99% of the cases, a %if 
exception is simple and clear and controllable *outside* of extras 
using a %define.

This is what I was alluding to in my first response.  The conclusion of 
the thread also lends credence to this point of view.

YMMV.

-- 
-jeff