BandiPat wrote:
========== Linda, I think, if you learned to use your Linux setup a bit better or as you learn, you'll find all these questions not to be the problems you make them out to be.
*smile* Thanks BandiPat, but I think I know how to use Linux a bit too well, being the more likely problem.
All source packages are labeled with the name of the package,
I see source names like "README", info, License, etc. Those are fairly generic names. If I install more than one source package at a time, I would think the "README" of one package would overwrite a "README" in another source directory. All I'm suggesting is "symmetry". When soures are built, they are unpacked into uniquely packaged directory names under BUILD. When they are packaged, they are built in a package-unique name under "/var/tmp" When they are stored in the binary and source directories, all files are packaged into 1 uniquely named file. Since every part of the BUILD uses separately named directories, why not store sources in separately named directories as well? Source file names can conflict. In 9.3, there are 265 filenames that are identically named that are in 2 or more packages. The winner in 9.3 is "README.SuSE" with 80 source packages having that file. If one unpacks more than one version at a time -- which, if you are familiar with kernel building in "/usr/src", is quite common, it would be easy for a built package to pick up the README.SuSE of the wrong source package.
If you want to compare src.rpms, I suggest you use something like Krusader or Midnight Commander to break the rpms down to view those things you want without installing them.
I prefer to use the shell. I tried Midnight Commander, once. It was far too easy to trigger the wrong key and have it delete a directory of files. Just another non-unix utility to use to confuse things. I prefer diff, vi, mostly shell tools.
I also suggest that after each build or compile you do when moving the rpm files to another location that you also clean up your src.rpm directories as well. Again, that can be done with a root Konq or using the shell, really very simple.
---- Well, that's the problem. I prefer to have more than one source unwrapped at one time. Different people have different ways of doing things. I thought using different subdirectories for sources would be just a smart as using different subdirectories for BUILD. Can you give me a good technical reason why they should be inconsistent?
It really sounds like it's just a matter of you getting to know your system better. Unlike Windows, you'll find many ways to do something, some easy, some not so easy, but always doable.
I thought it was in Windows that ways to do things were "fixed" (set) in stone by MS. I had the impression Linux was more flexible. That's why I suggested a _different_ way of doing something in Linux. The problem of non-unique source file names gets worse in suse 10.0. As I mention in the subject if someone unpacks more than one source file, the chances of building an RPM with the same-named file from another package increases. When RPM's are built -- they take care to build in a clean environment. That is handled by the build tool RPM. It deletes the old build directory first to ensure there won't be a confusion between the old build and a new build. If it was intended only to unpack 1 source package at a time, I assert that the RPM tool would be smart enough to delete everything under /usr/src/SOURCES, before unpacking a source RPM. If the RPM developers were smart enough to delete conflicting directories under BUILD, don't you think that they would have done it under SOURCES if was intended that only 1 package be unpacked at a time? If I unpack sources under /usr/src/SOURCES, (assuming no name conflicts), I can easily build more than one RPM at the same time -- as they all build in separate build areas. Why would the makers of RPM deliberately break the ability to do parallel building of RPMs? Separately named directories under SOURCES would help ensure a non-overlap of source file names. -linda
regards, Lee