%{?dist}, recommended or optional?

Michael A. Peters mpeters at mac.com
Sat Jan 7 09:42:08 UTC 2006


On Sat, 2006-01-07 at 12:51 +0330, Roozbeh Pournader wrote:
> I am encountering two (or even three) different approaches about the
> %{?dist} tag in Extras, which has made me somehow confused.
> 
> These are the somehow contradicting advices:
> 
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Extras/BuildRequests :
> 
>    It is recommended to use the suffix %{?dist} in the release field
>    to distinguish builds for different OS versions.

True

> 
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PackageNamingGuidelines
> 
>    If you wish to use a single spec file to build for multiple
>    distributions, you can use the %{dist} tag in the Release field.

Also True.
Single spec file, if possible, is less maintenance work as well.
When it is not possible - it usually is because supporting libraries are
not new enough for a newer version.

> 
> http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DistTag
> 
>    It is documented and standardized so that maintainers who wish to use
>    it can do so.

True

> 
> So, the question is: how is a maintainer supposed to make his mind?

I always use it. I don't believe it is required, but using it makes it
very clear which distribution it was built for - and also signals yum
that it needs to be upgraded when you upgrade your distribution.


> Should he take the BuildRequests advice and use it, unless he has a good
> reason he shouldn't? Or should he take the other advices and do it only
> if he wishes to, or when he believes it's really *needed*?

AFAIK it is optional, but I think the benefits make it worth it.




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