Re: [Bug 195] Review request: perl-Crypt-IDEA - Perl interface to IDEA block cipher
Going off-bugzilla.
RPM Fusion Bugzilla wrote:
http://bugzilla.rpmfusion.org/show_bug.cgi?id=195
--- Comment #10 from Michael Schwendt <mschwendt(a)gmail.com> 2009-01-18 12:49:21
---
The original rationale for recommending "install -p" and "cp -p"
when
installing files manually (inside the spec file e.g.) has been in preserving
timestamps for _prebuilt_ files in tarballs. Such as various forms of
documentation files.
It is considered helpful by many package users, because they can
judge about
the age of documentation files simply by checking timestamps. Particularly
helpful with but not limited to larger pdf/ps files and html trees. No need to
revisit such files after package updates, if the documentation is still
unchanged since 2001, for example, and other files are several months old, too.
User would "cd /usr/share/doc/..." and quickly notice that only a README file
has changed for this update.
Provided the fact many pdf/ps/man files are _generated_ (doxygen,
texinfo, pod2man), this rationale is of very limited use, as well as a
simple "INSTALL=install -p" would not help in many occasions.
A few corner-cases have been found where install -p helped,
Correct, there have been _very few_ such cases.
Off-head I don't recall any ;)
I think related to
.rpmnew creation of config files just because the mtime changed (and not just
the checksum).
.rpmnew's are being generated for %config files. Handling them correctly
is rpm's job. And yes, IIRC, rpm once had been broken wrt. them.
Some reviewers have expanded the recommendation to use "install
-p ..." to also
run "make install DESTDIR=$RPM_BUILD_ROOT INSTALL="install -p", which I
think
is somewhat over the top
Agreed, but I'd express it a bit harder: Enforcing such a rule
demonstrates a reviewer's lack of technical skills.
He should at least examine whether a package recognises "INSTALL" (All
automake based ones do, most others don't), rsp. whether preserving
would make any sense in a particular package.
In most cases, it doesn't.
even if covers a few more prebuilt files. Some
tarballs mix cp/install and mkdir/install, so one would need to switch to "cp
-p" for the full show.
additionally there are other means of generating files
...
E.g. perl modules typically copy around their sources (lib/blib) during
builds, generate man-pages on the-ply (using pod2man) etc.
So, conclusively: Historically it has only been pedantic eye-candy
(albeit
considered helpful by our users). If nowadays there is knowledge that it
actually fixes anything else, please document that.
Actually, I would finally see
any actual bug, this "install -p" fixes,
these days.
In the past, have been some case, but AFAICT, all of them actually have
been side-effects of bugs elsewhere (e.g. rpm).
Ralf