On 18.03.2008, at 22:06, Robert Burrell Donkin wrote:
On Tue, Mar 18, 2008 at 8:40 PM, Christopher Lenz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
I wonder because with CouchDB, source tarballs are created through
the
GNU-Autotools based build process, rather than being a raw `svn
export` of the release tag. We don't keep the auto*-generated
configure/make files in the repository (they are generated files
after
all), but do include them in source tarballs to limit build-time
dependencies and make the build process easier for the user.
I guess we could start checking in the generating build files into
SVN
if that's required. But maybe you can back that statement up a bit
before we do so?
lots of binary distributions at apache contain source. this makes them
binary distributions containing source, not source distributions.
Maybe I didn't explain properly… our previous (pre-incubation) source
distributions did not contain any binaries, only source. The
difference between the tarballs and a source control checkout is that
the former has some generated build scripts.
Looking into the HTTPD repos and comparing to the HTTPD source
tarballs, they appear to be doing the same thing: there's a
"configure" file in the source tarball, but not in the repos. In
general I'd say this is common practice for any project based on
Autotools.
[snip]
source distributions (svn exports) are aimed at developers so they can
create accurate diffs and contribute patches, not users. they are also
useful for downstream distributors who want to be able to accurately
and
selectively apply patches. these groups should be able to build in
the same
way committers do so they don't really need it easy. binary
distributions
are for users, source distributions for developers.
The generated source tarballs don't in anyway prevent developers from
providing good patches. They contain the source plus some build files
pre-generated for convenience (which can be regenerated from the very
same tarballs nonetheless).
Also, again similar to HTTPD, the source tarball is actually the main
distribution for users, too (except the Windows camp, which we don't
support yet anyway).
Cheers,
--
Christopher Lenz
cmlenz at gmx.de
http://www.cmlenz.net/
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