[Rpm-maint] Drowning in build-ids

[Mark Wielaard]

On Wed, 2017-10-25 at 12:49 +0200, Igor Gnatenko wrote:
> On Wed, 2017-10-25 at 13:46 +0300, Panu Matilainen wrote:
> So I'm wondering how to make this less ugly.
> > 
> > The first thing that comes to mind is adding a %hidden virtual
> > attribute 
> > and using it on build-ids (which are in a hidden directory on the 
> > filesystem), which would hide such files rpm -ql etc output by
> > default 
> > (but with a cli-switch to show it all).
> > 
> > Another option would be hiding files and directories starting with
> > dot, 
> > ie mirror the filesystem behavior. Obviously with a switch to show
> > them too.
> > 
> > The idea of being able to hide arbitrary files from default output
> > makes 
> > me a bit queasy. And also %hidden wouldn't help with existing
> > packages, 
> > (mass) rebuilds are needed with that option. So it seems like two
> > points 
> > in favor of the fs behavior, but dunno.
> > 
> > Thoughts, comments, better ideas?
> 
> I definitely like FS approach (2). But also having %hidden (1) would
> find its use I think.

I don't like the name %hidden, but I think that having an official
attribute like "%artificial" might be the correct way to go. Then any
file added by rpm/file trigger/etc that wasn't explicitly mentioned in
the spec %files list could get that attribute. If you have that then
you can have a rpm -qA to list all "artificial" files of the rpm (and
rpm -qlA would show all).

I don't like the hide .dot files heuristic. People might have
explicitly added .dot files to their spec %files. Then I think they
should be shown by default I think.

But maybe explicitly treat /.build-id/ as artificial and then add an
official %artificial for all "future" use would be a good compromise?

Cheers,

Mark