[Rpm-ecosystem] Trying to understand %buildsubdir and debuginfo generation

[Panu Matilainen]

On 04/27/2018 06:47 AM, Jason L Tibbitts III wrote:
>>>>>> "JJ" == Jeff Johnson <n3npq at me.com> writes:
> 
> JJ> Note that the macro definitions you are trying to understand are not
> JJ> from rpm itself (so you perhaps should be consulting with other
> JJ> SME's than me).
> 
> Well, I was consulting a mailing list.
> 
> Here's a paste from the macros.debug file in the rpm 4.14.1 source:
> 
> %install %{?_enable_debug_packages:%{?buildsubdir:%{debug_package}}}\
> %%install\
> %{nil}

Note that macros.debug is only used inside the rpm testsuite, none of it 
is active in normal installation.

> 
> Here's a paste from the macros that Fedora uses
> (/usr/lib/rpm/redhat/macros):
> 
> %install %{?_enable_debug_packages:%{?buildsubdir:%{debug_package}}}\
> %%install\
> %{nil}

Ew. Now there's a blast from the past, that ugly %install override is 
from 2002 when debuginfo was a fairly new concept. If that's actually 
needed for debuginfo then it's a bug (in rpm).

> 
> Seems... similar.
> 
> JJ> Talk to whomever decided that there was a need to overload %install
> JJ> with a test on %buildsubdir.
> 
> OK, so, again, I'm trying to talk to this mailing list, which I thought
> provided the best chance to reach the people who know.

Well, git blame brings this up (redhat-rpm-config):

commit 1640cd5cac6e1308de8f303e95089053e7f5c9b5 (tag: 
REDHAT_RPM_CONFIG_8_0_14)
Author: Tim Powers <timp at redhat.com>
Date:   Sat Dec 14 20:37:32 2002 +0000

     more debug macro tweaks

...and that's all he wrote. Gotta love the descriptive commit messages 
of that era.

	- Panu -