On 01/16/2011 03:10 AM, C Anthony Risinger wrote: > yeah i've been around long enough to get the general vibe... but > really... do you actually _enjoy_ making packages? do you like it > when things break (even if not often, i'm not bashing arch developers > or anyone else here) because of small version mismatches/typos/etc. > due to the constant requirement for human interaction every step of > the way? do you appreciate the system requiring an unknown amount of > your (limited) time each day you decide to update? don't you ever > wish you could just say "hey computer 'ol pal, aggressively follow > upstream source for package X and merge remote user Y's with the local > configuration, unless either requires changes to package Z -- then ask > me first, cuz i run the show here"? I actually hate making packages, which is why I like the Arch system. I like how if you know how to install a program from source, you know how to make an Arch package. In general, if I need to make a package, I copy a random PKGBUILD from abs, change the top couple lines, and then set the build section to: ./configure --some-options make install It's not fancy, but it has two advantages: * It's fast to write * It installs the program in the way that upstream designed it to be Also, no matter how good a program you can write to automatically follow upstream, I don't always trust upstream ;) It's nice to have the Arch devs make sure something works for me..