[Mageia-dev] %{foo} vs. %foo

[Colin Guthrie]

'Twas brillig, and Zé at 21/08/11 23:16 did gyre and gimble:
> Hi,
> 
> Theres been a private discussion regarding the macro correct layout, if
> %{foo} or %foo.
> 
> This rised when in the wiki
> page http://mageia.org/wiki/doku.php?id=kde4_packaging_policy i changed
> the spec layout from %foo into %{foo} to be as a reference point, in
> wich mikala has reverted back to %foo, and this discussion has taken
> other porportions so i would like your opinions regarding this.
> 
> I have pointed that for a wiki page should be proper to use %{...} to
> avoid doubts specially in beginners minds, since in some situations we
> need really to use the {} delimitations.
> In wich its recommendation its focused in this cute PDF from redhat website:
> 
> http://www.redhat.com/promo/summit/2008/downloads/pdf/Wednesday_130pm_Tom_Callaway_OSS.pdf
> 
> Im not refering that now we should use only %{...}, that usage can be
> handled from the user prespective (for example in my specs locally i
> generally dont use delimitations), some like others dont.
> 
> As we also see in rpm macros
> document http://www.rpm.org/wiki/PackagerDocs/Macros that we can use
> both, but in all rpm docs and config files the common usage its with
> delimitations.

FWIW, personally I tend to use delimiters also.

I prefer it as it feels more like strict typing.... I know it's not but
I always like to make things totally and unequivocally explicit all the
same.

I tend to do this in my bash scripts and even in PHP scripts too (tho'
annoyingly the PHP delimiters go outside of the variable identifier
unlike in RPM macros and bash, so it's syntactically a little different
but the same principles apply).

Cheers

Col





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Colin Guthrie
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http://colin.guthr.ie/

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