Hi all, Earlier there was/is a discussion on why BLFS is adamant about describing the various commands/descriptions/parameters/options used in the instructions for BLFS packages. I would like to present a really good example why these trivial (to us Editors) blurbs in the book are important.
Installing the Obexd package today I noticed: 1) There is a sed command that adds a header file to one of the .c files in the tarball before configure is run, there is no description of what it does in the "Command Explanations", and without the sed command the package builds and installs with no problems. Shouldn't readers be advised to why they must run this command that apparently does nothing to help the build? 2) There is a --sysconfdir=/etc switch to configure, yet there are no files installed to /etc and no explanation why this must be passed during the configure phase of the build. It seems as though the original editor who installed the package used it 'just in case' there may be configuration files in /etc. We cannot guess about this. We must be certain when we put stuff in the book. Otherwise, we look like we are guessing at configuration options. 3) The --libexecdir= switch points to a non-standard location. libexecdir location has always been /usr/lib/packagename, yet in the Obexd instructions, the location varies from this. Is this because other packages expect it to be where the libexecdir switch points to it, or simply because the Editor who originally put the package in BLFS decided to go against the standards that we have created? 4) The packages is a simple CMMI installation that varies from the standards that BLFS has been using for years and years. Shouldn't there be some sort of explanation why the instructions vary from the standards? Sorry for the rant, it got longer than I wanted, but I wanted to point out that (as Bruce said) BLFS is not a linear installation process. We do not know where a reader will start his/her BLFS adventure. So, because of this, we must realize that a reader needs information as much as possible, as mundane and redundant that it may seem to us Editors. -- Randy rmlscsi: [bogomips 1003.23] [GNU ld version 2.16.1] [gcc (GCC) 4.0.3] [GNU C Library stable release version 2.3.6] [Linux 2.6.14.3 i686] 21:43:01 up 51 days, 7:42, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.01, 0.00 -- http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/blfs-dev FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/faq.html Unsubscribe: See the above information page
