Preparing for a point release

[Gary E. Miller]

Yo Hal!

Sorry to have helped stir things up, then been offline.  Recovering
from the local grunge that is going around my town...

On Fri, 08 Dec 2017 16:09:11 -0800
Hal Murray via devel <devel at ntpsec.org> wrote:

> rlaager at wiktel.com said:
> > cat > /usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/local.pth << EOF  
> >> /usr/local/lib64/python2.7/site-packages
> >> /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages
> >> EOF  
> 
> > mkdir -p /usr/local/lib64/python2.7/site-packages
> > mkdir -p /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages  
> 
> We'll need a variation for 32 bit systems.

Uh, no.  And no.  At least not on Gentoo.

spidey ~ # ls -l /usr/local/lib* -ld
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root    5 Jan 17  2009 /usr/local/lib -> lib64
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root 4096 Jun 17  2008 /usr/local/lib32
drwxr-xr-x 12 root root 4096 Dec  4 11:52 /usr/local/lib64

Similarly:

spidey ntpsec # ls -l /usr/lib* -ld
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root      5 Jan 17  2009 /usr/lib -> lib64
drwxr-xr-x   5 root root  20480 Nov 14 12:55 /usr/lib32
drwxr-xr-x 191 root root 176128 Dec  6 18:38 /usr/lib64

Gentoo has what they call 'multilib'.  You are free to install
parallel 32 bit and 64 bit binaries, and they automagically find
and use the proper lib dirs.

> Should we package everything up into a script, or leave it in some 
> documentation where somebody can cut-paste?

The whim of the ether (and LWN.net) just dropped this little quote in my
lap:

    Distribution packages generated by upstream are usually
    horrible unless upstream is deeply involved in that distribution
    community. From the perspective of an experienced packager for that
    distribution, they are usually way behind best practices, don't use
    common facilities, install into weird locations, and otherwise look
    like something that someone just beat on with a hammer until it
    vaguely installed and sort of worked.

    There are exceptions for some types of packages, like small
    libraries, where nearly every package of a type installs basically
    the same way, but even there those exceptions are not reliable and
    pitfalls lurk. 

— Russ Allbery

I saw the word 'horrible', then looked at the unread email on this
topic in my INBOX, and I was reminded why I love LWN.

IMHO, all we need to get right, and into our git head:

    1. Local admin install into /usr/local/{lib, bin, etc.}

    2. Local user install into ~/.local

    3. Typical stanard install options, like: --prefix=

    4. Whatever upstream packagers (Richard Laager, etc.) ask for.

Then test.  Mostly on newly installed distros, our typical real life
user case.  Distros where things are still in their default state,
no PYTHONPATH yet, etc.

RGDS
GARY
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gary E. Miller Rellim 109 NW Wilmington Ave., Suite E, Bend, OR 97703
	gem at rellim.com  Tel:+1 541 382 8588

	    Veritas liberabit vos. -- Quid est veritas?
    "If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it." - Lord Kelvin
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