> Hmm... it occurs to me that while using FS monitoring (or your 'find' > based approach) is neat, it's not parallel-safe. I'm guessing you > don't install more than one package simultaneously? My current build > scripts basically consist of a generated Makefile to deal with > dependencies, and it copes quite happily with being run with half a > dozen processes...
Absolutely correct, one package at a time. Anything that changes in the watched directories will be attributed to the installation in progress, and the script checks to see if it already has a "was" list, i.e. installation being observed before continuing. As I wrote: > Just so as you sit there and watch the console scroll by and don't do > anything that's going to change the directories being watched! Get > impatient and chaos breaks loose! One of the "fixes" I had to install was a sleep! If the install were, say, just copying a few small files to /etc that could be done before the clock ticked, then they didn't show up when the script looked for "newer than". A sleep was a smaller change than using comm. > so this isn't someone who began at the beginning and tries to build > everything. I don't do that either, not quite. > And with respect, I suggest that many of the packages you build are > *not* the sort of things that most people will want! I still think > that a typical new builder wants to get some sort of desktop running, > and then they can mostly do their own thing. Firstly, I offered that as an example, not a guide. In general though, I agree, X is a major goal. I choose to make a more friendly, manageable CLI system first because my installation process is not entirely automated. And I find the liklihood of needing networking is high. > There was no enthusiasm from the editors - I know, I was keen on > releases, but nobody else was. That's unfortunate. BLFS is much harder to use now. > I'm not dismissing a newbie's "what do I want to build" section, but I > think it cannot go into too much detail about dependencies, otherwise > it will fairly quickly become out of date. Agreed. It should be general in scope. > OK, if that's your starting point I'll copy it in here and criticise - No need. It was an example of how one builder goes from a bare LFS to a more capable system, not a guide. > Do you, personally, see an actual problem with the "open BLFS index, > search for name of package like Firefox, click and go down > dependencies" approach? I know that's exactly what I did when *I* was > a newbie, and it worked fine. I don't build a ladder to get to one fruit, I build a platform that supports whatever I need to do, harvest, pruning, etc. Personal approach, eh? > In general, Ken has already covered most of what I'd say in reply, but > I'd also note that much of the stuff you list is just dependencies. > You don't install openssl or libpng because you want those packages, > as they're almost useless on their own. They're things you install > only because they're needed in order to install something you *do* > care about (e.g openssh, or a desktop) Certainly. I do have goals to get to. But a newbie would, I think, benefit from being told that (s)he needs to build certain dependencies, with PERHAPS some guidance to what a good set would be, before getting to the goal of a functional desktop. In the LFS book the approach is forward-looking, i.e. "We need libc before we can proceed", while as everybody is saying, in the BLFS book it's all backward-looking and only finds dependencies that lead to one specific package. I think I spend rather more time than most here developing a broader base of "support" packages, a "layered" approach. -- Paul Rogers paulgrog...@fastmail.fm http://www.xprt.net/~pgrogers/ Rogers' Second Law: "Everything you do communicates." (I do not personally endorse any additions after this line. TANSTAAFL :-) -- http://www.fastmail.fm - Or how I learned to stop worrying and love email again -- http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/blfs-support FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/faq.html Unsubscribe: See the above information page
