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

[Florian Festi]

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.

Florian


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

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