This is a proposal to change how source gets on a user's machine for them to use to build the kernel, and associcated modules packages.
First, a bit of background and rationale. The way we do things now is to make .deb packages that contain source code. There are two varying ways this is done: 1. Just include the source code, unpacked, in the .deb. This leads to monstrous lintian reports, and it can lead to problems when a built source tree is purged. Thus, lots of people have moved over to #2: 2. Include a tarball in the .deb. The user must remember to unpack the tarball manually each time the package is updated. It does lack the drawbacks of #1. I really feel that both of these are broken hacks; we're trying to fit something that was never meant to go in a .deb into one, and it doesn't fit very well. We end up cluttering the rules files of kernel module packages with all sorts of junk to build a -source package, while also being able to build modules packages. A source tree is not your typical binary package. Really only a few things matter about a source tree: a. It needs to be updatable somehow. b. It needs to be in a consistent location where kernel-package can find and build it. c. Build depends. So I got to thinking about apt-get source which seems like the logical solution. It handles a. pretty well, although it doesn't update the sources along with installed .deb's when apt-get update is run. It doesn't handle b. at all though. But it seems to me we could pretty easily extend apt-get source to do these things. I'd propose the following: * Add a "apt-get install-source" command. This will always unpack the source into /usr/src (or some other location set in the apt config file). It will also register the source as installed in a list somewhere (or, perhaps no list is needed). * Add an "apt-get upgrade-source" command. This will upgrade all installed source packages, reading the list (or perhaps, just upgrading everything that looks like a source package in /usr/src). * (Later, apt really should support satisfying build-depends, but that is somewhat orthagonal to this proposal.) This wouldn't only be useful for kernel and modules sources, I imagine people would find other uses for up-to-date sources in a consitent location. For example, one unresolved thing related to build dependancies is source build dependancies (ie, you need the source of foo to build bar). This might allow that to be addressed eventually. Jason, what do you think, apt bloat, or worth it? It could just be impelmented as wrapper shell scripts. Hm. Manoj, this wouldn't require many changes to kernel-package, although it might need to start looking for modules source directly in /usr/src. -- see shy jo
