On Fri, Nov 05, 2004 at 03:52:13AM +0100, Dag Wieers wrote: > If you want people making compatible packages, find problems or doing > general QA, having those SPEC files available instead of SRPMs is crucial. > I don't want to go download another 5MB to have a 5kB file and see 5 bytes > changed. Another vote from here. Even with a fast connection, you still need to get the .spec file manually out of the SRPM, which is quite a nuisance. I might not care too much about my own bandwidth, but it's in everybody's interest to save d.f.r.com's or the mirrors'. Another common possible use for a .spec file that you haven't explicitly mentioned is looking at a package's RPM changelog. Googling for stuff, downloading the SRPM or the RPM and dropping into a shell to check the changelog can get a bit tedious, especially when done on a number of packages. -- Rudi