[Rpm-ecosystem] RFC #417 %optional file attribute

[Pascal Terjan]

On Mon, 26 Mar 2018, 11:44 Florian Festi, <ffesti at redhat.com> wrote:

> Hi!
>
> We are currently pondering about #417 [1]. For adding a %optional file
> attribute that would allow adding file to to %files sections that may
> not be built under some circumstances (e.g. some architectures).
>
> It is already perfectly legal to have files not listed explicitly if
> they are within a directory that is included in the %file section. But
> some packages (examples wanted) may have trouble using this due to the
> way the package files are laid out.
>
> Otoh %optional would be another spec language key word that packagers
> have to deal with and we as RPM upstream developers have a hard time
> judging whether the benefit of the attribute really out weights the cost
> of bloating the spec language.
>
> Any input - especially with real world packages that would benefit such
> an addition - is welcome.
>

I personally don't remember missing it in 17 years creating rpm packages
and would suggest against using it in distro policy even if it was
available.
If one file depends on a feature available only on some architectures for
example, using it would mean the packager not noticing that it got disabled
on another arch where it is supposed to exist.
I prefer always being explicit and having explicit conditions defining in
which case the file should be there.

Florian
>
>
> [1] https://github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm/pull/417
>
>
>
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