1. Why do all Mandrake RPM's have "mdk" in the release number?
2. I know that the files in source RPM's are recompressed using bzip2
in order to save space. However, I've read that one of the main
concepts of RPM is "pristine source"; that is, in the source RPM we
include the source exactly as we downloaded it, along with any patches
necessary to make it work. Also, it's helpful if the "Source:" field
in a spec file contains a valid URL for the source file, so people
know where the source came from. If you recompress the source file
with bzip2, then either you have to take out the URL, or the URL
becomes invalid, unless the original source is actually available in
bzip2-compressed format. Perhaps this is more of a philosophical
issue than anything else.
3. Why is spec-helper run automatically by rpm during the package
building process? Why is spec-helper needed at all? It seems
redundant in light of the brp-* scripts stored under /usr/lib/rpm,
though I guess one difference is that spec-helper uses bzip2 and
brp-compress uses gzip. My main concern is that spec-helper could
cause compatibility problems when building non-Mandrake packages on a
Mandrake system, since spec-helper compresses the man pages
automatically and non-Mandrake packages may not be expecting this.
4. I notice that in Mandrake change log entries, the package version
number is at the end of the entry's header. Does this cause any
trouble when building Mandrake source packages on a non-Mandrake
system, or when installing Mandrake binary packages on a non-Mandrake
system?
I guess what I don't like about these things is that they're
deviations from standard package building practices and the standard
version of RPM. Mandrake and Red Hat can compete in areas like
installation and the user interface, but I think cooperation is
important in the area of software packaging.
--
Matt Campbell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Web site: http://www.crosswinds.net/~mattcamp/
ICQ #: 33005941
