On Sat, 2004-12-18 at 00:29 +0100, Enrico Scholz wrote:
walters(a)redhat.com (Colin Walters) writes:
> One thing that should be clear is that by using a revision control
> system for RPM packaging, we've already conceptually broken
> compatibility because the SRPM is no longer the preferred form of
> modification, to use the GPL terminology.
CVS can not replace SRPM:
Note that I was talking about prerequisites for changing to a better
revision control system, not how our current system is flawed. But I'll
answer anyways:
- SRPM can be signed, CVS not
Right; this is solved directly in pretty much all the distributed RCSes.
- SRPM are (usually) working, while the CVS checkout might be a
completely
broken development snapshot
You wouldn't check out CVS HEAD; you'd check out a branch tag
corresponding to a particluar NVR.
- SRPM give you reproducibility, CVS not
Not true if you can map NVR->CVS tag.
- SRPM can be better accessed (e.g. in a browsable http/ftp listing);
ViewCVS solves this, I think. And e.g. Arch includes tools to browse
the repository in the client.
for CVS you need tags which are more difficultly to handle
Sure.
- SRPM are buildable with system-tools (rpmbuild); for CVS you need
lots
of prerequisites.
Not necessarily. We could just stick the necessary scripts in the
common/ dir or whatever. Or just include the necessary tools in an
updated rpmbuild.
(- a known CVS drawback: cvs checkin/checkout is not atomic)
checkin is unrelated to this discussion, and checkout is solved because
you check out a tag.