[Mageia-dev] A question about BuildRequires and other RPM questions.

AL13N alien at rmail.be
Thu Feb 28 16:59:10 CET 2013


Op donderdag 28 februari 2013 15:43:22 schreef Robert Wood:
> On 28/02/13 14:25, Guillaume Rousse wrote:
> > There is not much choice, beside building from a specified build
> > environment, which is usually the minimal installation for your target
> > distribution + rpmbuild. Most distributions use dedicated systems to
> > automatically deploy such clean environment before eac package build
> > attempt (iurt, mock, etc...).
> 
> So, I should maybe install a minimal install on a virtual machine? Then
> when it needs packages I can add those to the dependencies list? It
> strikes me the problem with that would be that once you've added a load
> of packages for one RPM, then started on another, you'd be back to the
> same problem as before and need to keep reinstalling Mageia for each RPM
> you do. There must be a better way than that.

i myself have made a script that uses a minimal install btrfs subvolume, makes 
a snapshots for this package, then builds the rpm in a screen session, then 
removes the snapshot again.

i use this script mostly for testbuilding on my local machine.

in the past i just submitted it to the buildsystem (to updates_testing) when i 
was done working on it, and if it failed, i added some extra buildrequires, 
until it built, after that i did a final test

> > Build dependencies are usually specified in installation instructions.
> > For humans, of course. You may also try to parse the outpout of
> > ./configure (or equivalent) script. In both case, there is not garanty
> > then every build dependency will get specified.
> 
> It sounds like there is a load of trial and error then? I am sure I must
> misunderstand, building reliable RPMs must be a relatively
> straightforward thing once you're up and running surely?

trial and error for buildrequires yes, mostly for new packages, if you're 
updateing packages, you sort of know more about the package and if it has 
extra builddependencies, the BS will tell you this.

so, in short for new packages you can have some trial and error (usually no 
more than 5 or 6 tries, wrt buildrequires).

it's not such a big deal...


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