[Python-Dev] Proposal -- makefile patches and scripts to generate python RPMs

[Eric S. Raymond]

Neil Schemenauer <nas@arctrix.com>:
> On Wed, Oct 04, 2000 at 05:56:38PM -0400, Eric S. Raymond wrote:
> > Jeremy Hylton <jeremy@beopen.com>:
> > > Can you compare this approach to using a hand-crafted .spec file for
> > > the RPMs?  It took a little while to figure out how to generate the
> > > .spec, but now that it has been created it does not seem hard to
> > > maintain.
> > Actually, the point of my approach is *not* to hand-craft the spec file.
> 
> Okay, but we already have the spec file.  Why is your approach
> better?  Is your script that generates the the spec easier to
> maintain then the spec file itself?  Is it just as flexible?  If
> so then Red Hat screwed up designing RPM.  I can see the utility
> of such as script but I don't see how it helps in this situation.

The main thing a specfile generator can accomplish is to automate the
generation of the file list so that (for example) when we add a new
library module the specfile doesn't have to be hand-edited.
-- 
		<a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>

"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty.  Suspect every one
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	-- Patrick Henry, speech of June 5 1788