[Rpm-maint] [PATCH] rpmbuild: clean up buildroot handling, set a default buildroot

[Jason Corley]

Nobody seems to care about "BuildRoot: /lib" and that is just as
efficient at hosing your system as "BuildRoot: /".  If your goal is to
fix a greater problem, then I submit that the patches JBJ has had in
his RPM for close to six months are much more a) well tested, and b)
more effective as a long term solution.  But just in case you forgot
the (only?) arguments against that idea:

    1) changes the ABI (not that anyone uses librpmbuild, but....)
    2) introduces a new macro namespace

Either you want to fix the larger problem or you want to solve your
problems.  Either it is unacceptable to change past behavior or it
isn't.  Either it is ok to make changes that break other's builds or
it isn't.  You decide it's your community, but right now what I see is
"we're fine making you change, but don't make us change."
Jason

On 2/15/07, Tom 'spot' Callaway <tcallawa at redhat.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 2007-02-15 at 15:12 -0500, Jason Corley wrote:
> > So compatibility should only be maintained when someone at Red Hat
> > says it's worth keeping.
>
> Well, I wouldn't go that far. If a small group of people are reliant
> upon a program's bad behavior, should you fix the behavior to be sane
> and make life much simpler for the majority of users, or ignore the bad
> behavior to keep the small group happy?
>
> In this case, fixing the bug so that the default buildroot is not / is
> trivial for people dumping binary bits into RPM.
>
> In fact, if you follow the "rpm defaults are trumped by system macros
> are trumped by local spec defines", then all those users seeking
> "compatibility" would need to do is add:
>
> BuildRoot: /
>
>