Jeremy Huntwork wrote:
On Tue, Nov 1, 2016 at 2:52 PM Bruce Dubbs <[email protected]> wrote:
Jeremy Huntwork wrote:
On Tue, Nov 1, 2016 at 1:50 PM Bruce Dubbs <[email protected]>
wrote:
Did you see the Preface?
http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/view/stable/prologue/package-choices.html
Hmm, actually, it does seem like there could be some improvement there.
For
example, the preface tells me what the Acl and Attr package do, but it
doesn't say anything about why they are now in the book. Is there
something
that needs these features? Did the editors just feel this makes the
system
more 'complete'? Some packages do have what is more like a rationale, but
others are a little vague.
Another example: expat is included because it's a dependency of the
XML::Parser Perl module. But the rationale for that module only says that
it's an interface to the expat library. I'm left with no clue as to why
either are needed.
Some time ago we decided to make the sysv and systemd books as compatible
as possible, Originally we needed to add 8 packages for systemd. We left
out dbus and systemd from the sysv version of the book, but left the
others.
As you know, LFS is not about building a minimal system. There are some
packages that could be left out of sysv (e.g. acl) or exchanged for light
weight packages (e.g. vim). What we have is a compromise that allows a
user to customize a system via BLFS.
Yep, I understand. My intention wasn't to suggest what should or shouldn't
be in the book. My point is that it would be nice to have those reasons
mentioned within the book itself, for instructional purposes. :)
As you said, the point isn't necessarily to produce a minimal system, but
it _is_ supposed to be about teaching, and advanced users should be able to
make informed decisions about how and where to modify the instructions for
their own purposes. So with that in mind, just a little bit more verbosity
into the rationale in the book itself would be really helpful.
Anyway, it's really just a suggestion. If you feel the information provided
is sufficient, feel free to ignore me. :)
Suggestions are welcome, but I'd prefer something more explicit.
-- Bruce
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