Re: [RFH] rpm packaging failure

From: Todd Zullinger <tmz@pobox.com>
Date: Jan 31, 2010, 04:12 UTC
Message-ID: <20100131041236.GP29188@inocybe.localdomain>
In-Reply-To: <7vd40rjks4.fsf@alter.siamese.dyndns.org>

Junio C Hamano wrote:

> To allow us to go forward a bit easier, I am planning to use the
> attached, as we would need some parts of it when we do start
> generating a separate package, I think.

Sounds good.  One minor nit, below... ;)

>  %define path_settings ETC_GITCONFIG=/etc/gitconfig prefix=%{_prefix} mandir=%{_mandir} htmldir=%{_docdir}/%{name}-%{version}
> +%{!?python_sitelib: %define python_sitelib %(%{__python} -c "from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib; print get_python_lib()")}

It is probably better to use %global rather than %define here. The Fedora packaging guidelines now recommend this:

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging/Guidelines#.25global_preferred_over_.25define

The rationale is that %define only really lasts until the closing brace, while %global persists. A bug in rpm has masked this for a long time, but it now fixed in upstream rpm, which is packaged for Fedora's rawhide and possible other rpm-based distros. A bit more detail is available at:

https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2010-January/msg00093.html

(Which is linked, with an incorrect trailing '|' character from the Fedora guidelines URL above.)

Using %global should work on older rpm versions as well as current versions, so there should be no downside to using s/%define/%global in most cases.

-- 
Todd        OpenPGP -> KeyID: 0xBEAF0CE3 | URL: www.pobox.com/~tmz/pgp
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