Re: [Vala] Building a build tool

[Phil Housley <undeconstructed gmail com>]

2009/10/2 Andrea Bolognani <eof kiyuko org>:
> On Thu, Oct 01, 2009 at 10:34:05PM +0100, Phil Housley wrote:
>
> > One thing I'm thinking of trying next is having packaging as a part of
> > the build.  I think it would be interesting to have a unit, for
> > example, at src/debian, which depended on the application unit and
> > then built a package automatically, but there are all sorts of issues
> > like where to put support files - with the application, with the
> > package, or separately in a resource unit (current favourite.)
>
> With my Debian package maintainer hat on, I kindly ask you _not_ to do that.
>
> Upstream development and packaging for a distribution are two totally
> separated affairs, and mixing them only leads to huge headaches and
> duplication of efforts.

I see where you are coming from with that, but for me as a lonely
developer they really aren't separate.  I don't want to go the
autotools route, of having a build tool that can also do installs, and
then translating an installation into packages and so on.  From my
point of view I'd like to make/download/sync a project, have the build
tool turn it into something I can install, and then use a package
manager to install it.

Sure, if most devs are like me they won't always be making perfect
packages that go straight into a distro, but they will shift the job
of installing things to something that is good at it.

I don't see that it can hurt to have package information in the
project itself, even if no distro ever wants to use it.  Or am I
missing something there?

> --
> Andrea Bolognani <eof kiyuko org>
> Resistance is futile, you will be garbage collected.

-- 
Phil Housley