[plug] Recompilation fo the whole box and fluffy dice...

[John Summerfield]

> > > list - thanks :-)
> 
> Building the whole system won't be easy .... you'll need to build each rpm in
> the correct order.  Not something for the faint hearted :)

The order of building is not important. However, I'd not try to build RHL 
6.1 on RHL 4.2 or even 5.2 - it simply will not work.

> 
> > I've not tried to recompile a whole distribution, but I have tried to 
> > rebuild a lot of rpms. Many are broken; I suspect Red Hat builds 
> > everything as root, which I do not wish to do.
> 
> They do .... with a little tweaking you can build packages as a normal user
> BUT it you trust the software enought to use it then surely you tust the 
> makefiles to not do "bad things"(tm).

Given the bad things I've seen some do, no.

>  
> > I have found rpms that try to update the running system when one runs
> > 	rpm --rebuild
> > That's probably okay in Red Hat Software's environment, it's not here 
> > where building a package does NOT mean I want it installed on the build 
> > system.
> 
> Building an rpm doen't install it in the host system .... it creates a tempor
> y
> "root" directory in "/var/tmp/rpm-build/<package>-<version>/" (or where ever
> is specified in the in .spec file)  when the "make install" happens it

and if the spec file doesn't specify it and the user doesn't specify it, 
it updates the running system. I've seen at least one rpm try.


> installs to there.  This can cause problems when docs are contructed to point
> to the "real" locations of files and symlinking.   
> 
> I just wanted to clarify that building an RPM doesn't install it on the build
> host.


The truth is that building an RPM should not install it on the build host. 
I have seen at least one RPM that tried to.


> 
> > There's at least one bug in rpm (on RHL 6.1) where it can, in some 
> > circumstances, package from the running system's libraries having built 
> > correctly into another location.
> 
> This happens  RedHat have always fixed it when I brought errors to their
> attention .... it helps if you fix it on your system and give them the new
> .spec/pactches.

I regularly report problems to the developer list. bugzilla is less 
convenient:

[summer at possum summer]$ ping www.redhat.com
PING www.portal.redhat.com (206.132.41.202) from 192.168.1.6 : 56(84) 
bytes of data.