[Slackbuilds-users] Updates - 20230128.1

[B. Watson]

On Mon, 30 Jan 2023, Erich Ritz via SlackBuilds-users wrote:

> Bingo.  Multiple packages that depend on java pick a version to put
> in REQUIRES but then the README notes that you can optionally use a
> different version.  If the SlackBuild tries to source the version in
> REQUIRES it will fail hard.

Java is special case (there are too many of them). I did have to write
more complex code than I wanted for that. But my other example (qt5 on
Slackware 14.2) was an example of something that Just Worked.

> We should be really careful adding "helpful" automation.  There is
> always a balance to be struck.  Where does it end?  Should every
> package do an explicit check for all of its dependencies to give
> a helpful error message?  How robust should that be to different
> versions of dependencies?  How many support requests are there that
> end up being the user didn't install all dependencies?

You're arguing against stuff I didn't actually propose.

> Note that some tools (e.g. slackrepo) take care to source the
> appropriate profile scripts automatically during the build.  So for
> me personally this is a non-issue, which is why I'm arguing against
> adding complexity to the SlackBuilds themselves.

A single "source /path/to/file" is not much complexity.

Also, users don't use slackrepo, they use sbopkg and sbotools.