File PACKAGING-NOTES of Package python3-base

Overview Repositories Revisions Requests Users Attributes Meta

File PACKAGING-NOTES of Package python3-base

Notes for packagers of Python3
==============================

I. python3 and python3-base naming confusion
--------------------------------------------

1. the important stuff first

This is package "python3". However, master spec file for this package is "python3-base.spec".
That means that all important changes should be put into "python3-base.spec" and then submitted
against "python3" in OBS.

Changelogs of python3-base and python3 will be merged at some point. Now they arent,
but feel free to enter changes in either or both.

2. why is that?

Technical reasons. python3-base was originally supposed to be a minimal package with no external
dependencies - so that it can build early in the distribution rebuild. There were also some
build loops involved.
Turns out, 90% of Python's standard library can be built without external dependencies. That's
what we do - in python3-base. python3 then only contains the remaining bits - dependency-heavy
subpackages and some small pieces like ssl, hashlib and sqlite.
Logically, python3-base must be the master spec because it builds the important parts.

3. why not rename the whole package to python3-base?

Because that would be stupid. The package is called python3.

4. so why not make python3 the minimal package and put the rest in python3-the-rest?

Because other distributions use python3-base as the minimal package as well. Also, packages
that require python3 expect the whole deal, not a stripped-down version.

5. alright, let's build python3-base from python3.spec and python3 from someother.spec

Tried that, abandoned it. It is more trouble than it's worth.

II. pre_checkin.sh
------------------

Our pre_checkin.sh takes care of copying relevant portions of python3-base.spec to python3.spec.
The "relevant portions" are:
* list of patches
* list of macro definitions
* patch apply sequence in %prep

That means that when you're adding a patch, you need only add it to python3-base.spec and it will appear
magically in python3.spec too.

If you want to replicate another section from py3-base to py3, just mark the section with
NEW-SECTION-BEGIN and NEW-SECTION-END (in both py3-base and py3) and add NEW-SECTION to list of $sections
in pre_checkin.sh

Places

File PACKAGING-NOTES of Package python3-base

Places