[Slackbuilds-users] Rust program packaging woes

[B. Watson]

On Sun, 22 Dec 2024, fsLeg wrote:

> I do have a server, although since it's a private one I'm only concerned with 
> it running when I need it, so there's occasional performance degradation or 
> downtime when I perform maintenance tasks (overloaded Slackware server), also 
> it might take time for me to discover when my server isn't available for some 
> reason. But it's been working for many years with only short hiccups due to 
> upstream issues.

Well, you could try hosting SBo sources there, see how it goes.

The sources all get mirrored here:

https://slackware.uk/sbosrcarch/

...so if your host has some downtime, it'll still be available. sbopkg
even knows how to download from the archive, if it can't get the
original URL.

>> So you've got a python script that works and is more readable,
>
> Well, it's still a spaghetti code since I'm doing manually what is supposed 
> to be done automatically by Rust's toolchain, but there's less voodoo 
> happening, and I explained what vendoring function does in the source, I can 
> also include comments for every step if it'll be helpful.

Comments are a good idea. Particularly ones that explain why
something's being done (python's supposed to be readable, it shouldn't
need comments that just say *what* the code already says...)

> I also forgot to ask, do I need to provide a license for my helper script in 
> the same way we do for SlackBuilds?

"Need" is a strong word. But I recommend it, yes. Pretty much anything
that gets publicly released should have some kind of license, because
(so I am told) some countries have weird copyright law. If something
doesnt have a license, there's a default one, that might not be what
you'd want.

I'm paraphrasing the memory of a conversation from a while back,
so I might have got it wrong. But whoever told me that I think is
still on this mailing list, and will hopefully step in and explain it
correctly. It's the reason SBo doesn't allow "public domain" as the
license, also (not valid in all countries).

For a helper script, you might just put "This script is part of the
xyz build on SlackBuilds.org, and is covered by the same license".
Especially if the license is longer than the script...