On 22 June 2011 23:14, Ahmad Samir <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 22 June 2011 22:47, Radu-Cristian FOTESCU <[email protected]> wrote:
>> I'm known to be grumpy and difficult, but I also believe in simplicity as a 
>> policy, therefore I'd like to ask you something.
>>
>> By no means I want to question Ahmad's judgment, however I strongly disagree 
>> with him on one point. As a _principle_. Otherwise, it's a tiny punctual 
>> question, but I'd like to know Mageia's patching _policy_.
>>
>> See comments 50 and downwards:
>>
>> https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1659#c50
>>
>> calibre-python2-env-fix.patch replaces
>> '/usr/bin/env python2'
>> with
>> '/usr/bin/env python'
>>
>> The calibre developer has used '/usr/bin/env python' for ages, but 
>> relatively recently he has decided to switch to '/usr/bin/env python2' for 
>> fear that some distros would use Python 3 by default.
>>
>> Ahmad insists that '/usr/bin/python' should be used in Mageia.
>>
>
> Actually, I said that the shebang should be removed altogether. Which
> is what was being done all those years calibre existed in the Mandriva
> repos (the same for Fedora, since they do remove the shebang, as the
> calibre spec was originally imported from Fedora, which I said in the
> report too).

Of course, or just /usr/bin/python. The /usr/bin/env way may be useful
for upstream when creating binary tarballs; but not for us we build
the package, and we know which version of python exists in the release
we're pushing it to.

Also, /usr/bin/python2 doesn't exist to begin with, as mikala pointed out.


>
>> As long as '/usr/bin/env python' _works_, I see no point in trying to 
>> rewrite other people's work.
>>
>> I would say that the general principle should be to apply a _minimal_ 
>> patching, not to try to rewrite the work of the developers of hundreds of 
>> packages!
>>
>> A distro's job is not to judge the work of the _upstream_ developers as long 
>> as this is not a real bug.
>>
>> "Should" Mageia try to "fix" something that is not actually broken? There 
>> might be hundreds of packages with thousands and thousands of questionable 
>> decisions taken by the upstream developers -- however, why fixing something 
>> that works?
>>
>> You see, I hate conflicts (although I seem to be a maestro in generating 
>> them), but I also need simplicity and clear policies. Also, policies that 
>> can be applied. "Perfect" policies that would require the revision of 
>> hundreds of packages that actually work are not my cup of tea.
>>
>> Of course, I am _not_ a Mageia packager and this is not "my" package, but 
>> I'd like to know Mageia's policy wrt building packages. Normally, patches 
>> are not meant to optimize but to fix breakages. If the packagers are 
>> compelled to "improve" upstream's work, this can prove to be catastrophic in 
>> complex cases.
>>
>>
>> Thank you,
>> R-C aka beranger
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Ahmad Samir
>



-- 
Ahmad Samir

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