Gnome spec files: nobody has made any promises about them.

[Paul Johnson <pauljohn ukans edu>]

Sean Middleditch wrote:
> 
> If you're running an RPM system, usually, just rpm -ta whatever.tar.gz will
> build the RPM if it has a spec file... which every true gnome package has
> that I've tried so far (with the exception of the older packages or ones
> that aren't part of gnoem itself).
> 
> rpm -ta gnome-core-1.1.6.tar.gz worked perfect for me, in any case.. ;-)

I think there is need for some clarification from the gnome team on
this.  In many cases in the past, this did not work for me and building
RPMS this way totally hosed my installation of Gnome. The RedHat rpms
were configured with a different set of options and there were serious
problems combining rpms built from RedHat spec and  rpms built from the
gnome spec files.

I discussed this with Miguel about gmc and it became clear that the
gnome folks never had any intention of adjusting their spec files to
match the RedHat spec files, and in fact, many people on this list have
referred to the RedHat preoccupation with the file system standard and
the complication of putting the corba files in /etc/CORBA rather than
the default configuration of /usr/etc/CORBA or whatever.  The RedHat
package maintainers made changes in their spec files that never showed
up in the Gnome spec files.

It could be I'm just troubled by ancient history.  I've not dug into
this during the last 6 months, but I've not seen any declaration either
that the Gnome package maintainers are promising their spec files will
work in a way that is consistent with RedHat systems, or even that their
spec files are up to date.  Sometimes you could open the spec file and
it does not even apply to the version of the program with which it was
shipped.

As a result of my experience, I cringe whenever anybody recommends a
simple "rpm -ta xxx".  ANybody building an rpm should at least untar the
package and inspect the spec file to see if it is up-to-date.

-- 
Paul E. Johnson                       email: pauljohn@ukans.edu
Dept. of Political Science            http://lark.cc.ukans.edu/~pauljohn
University of Kansas                  Office: (785) 864-9086
Lawrence, Kansas 66045                FAX: (785) 864-5700