Supporting distro re-packaging (Was: [sclug] Linux Apprentice Wanted !)

[Roland Turner SCLUG]

On Tue, 2006-11-07 at 13:49 +0000, Matt Dainty wrote:

> * Roland Turner (SCLUG) <raz.fpyht.bet.hx at raz.cx> [2006-11-07 12:01:03]:
> > 
> > Further, whether or not source is the "standard" means of distribution
> > (hello Gentoo and BSD-ports users!), the much larger problem of the
> > transitive closure of dependencies arises.
> 
> But remember that just because the distribution or OS provides the
> package as source, they're still just as able to then modify the package
> to sit nicely in their system, still creating the same so-called
> problem.

Erm, in the context of having users who post to Apache support forums
use apache.org builds, there is nothing "so-called" about this problem.

Either the transitive closure of required packages is present in the
apache.org build of Apache (less, perhaps, a widely used "base" set and
noting in particular that the required versions of the third-party
components may not be present in the user's distro), or the build won't
work, which would defeat the purpose of creating it.

That's a real problem. It is in fact the problem that inspired the
creation of distros in the first place.

- Raz