Re: [bug #20003] Two patches for packaging a relatively rpmlint clean gnustep-make rpm

[Nicola Pero]

> So we are nearly there.  To get where I am now I had to add a 
> fhs-system-x86_64 file (gnustep-make-2.0.4-fhs-system-x86_64.patch)for 
> x86_64 platforms.  I would like to know your thoughts on this.  But with 
> this I can now compile x86_64 bit gnustep-base packages.  Are my 
> assumptions for the variables correct?

The file looks good - I'll add it gnustep-make trunk soon ;-)


> Adding this file however, flavorizes (e.g. i386.rpm, x86_64.rpm) the 
> resulting gnustep-make rpm package because /etc/GNUstep/GNUstep.conf now 
> contains a hard coded path for either /usr/lib/ on i386 or /usr/lib64 on 
> x86_64 platforms.  The rpm package should really be a noarch.rpm package 
> as it doesn't contain any binaries.  I don't have a quick and ready 
> solution but maybe /etc/GNUstep/GNUstep.conf could be made a little 
> dynamic depending on the underlying platform?

Maybe having gnustep-make flavourized is a good idea. :-)

Ie, have the i386.rpm and the x86_64.rpm version, and make them 
alternative/conflicting.  I like that - let me explain why ;-)

The main problem is that the paths in /etc/GNUstep/GNUstep.conf are not
just used when running 'make', but they are also used by GNUstep libraries 
and other GNUstep things to find resources.  For example if you install
a gnustep-base rpm that puts the gnustep-base resources in 
/usr/lib64/GNUstep/xxx,
you *must* have a gnustep-make that is configured with these same paths, else
gnustep-base itself might not find its own resources correctly. :-(

So it might be safer for users to have the gnustep-base x86_64.rpm depend on
gnustep-make x86_64.rpm, so the paths will always match.  Ie, a user can't
install gnustep-make i386.rpm (which thinks resources are in /usr/lib/GNUstep)
and expect it to work with gnustep-base x86_64.rpm (which installs resources
in /usr/lib64/GNUstep).

Else I suppose you could have gnustep-make be platform independent, but with
multiple GNUstep.conf files for the different platforms, and then select the
right one on each one ?  Or edit/create GNUstep.conf on the fly when the
package is installed ?  I still prefer the situation with different packages,
because it's less likely that users get combinations of packages that don't
work together :-)

Thanks