https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=477346
User poeml@novell.com added comment
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=477346#c6
--- Comment #6 from Peter Poeml
I know that I know;) (thanks for helping me before!) but I get this question not too infrequrntly from friends...
Okay, something like this is always a good data point.
In addition, I agree with Adrian on the usefulness of source RPMs. What do you actually need them for?
hopefully, there is a smiley missing at your question and you're just joking, isn't it ???
Actually no, it was a serious question. It may sound a little stupid when asked in this seemingly naive form. But the point is, that source RPMs are not the best way to achieve exactly the things you name:
hey, we're talking about "open"suse -- this is all about open source (is it?) ! there are numerous reasons, e.g.
- debug/fix stuff in case of bugs (bug #477061 triggered my need for sources and this issue again...) - understand how tools were build, check for configure options, etc. - learn from source - backport versions - needed for debuginfo packages for source level debugging - adding changes/fixes/improvements - really need more ?
Source RPMs are the *primary* place that *most* people look for when they want to access the source. I agree on that. However, it is much more convenient, practical and nice to simply check out the sources from the build service. Source RPMs are a very arcane way compared to that, and rebuilding source RPMs utterly sucks compared to "osc build", because you have to create a build environment (getting required packages) yourself, you have them on your system then, and build doesn't happen in a chroot environment. And it is not straightforward to push changes back upstreams. However, your answer made it much more obvious to me (than I realized before) that this is something that most people are simply not aware of. And that's why I asked. So I suggest that we not only add a (working) link to the source RPM (which needs to be there because people are looking for it anyway), but also a link to the buildservice sources, and a note why and how this is so much better. Simply removing them will make people wonder what's up and why there is no source. The buildservice should finally be opened up fully. So far, it requires a Novell account to access the sources. -- Configure bugmail: https://bugzilla.novell.com/userprefs.cgi?tab=email ------- You are receiving this mail because: ------- You are on the CC list for the bug.