Re: [gentoo-dev] Vanilla sources

[Christopher Head <chead@chead.ca>]

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On January 4, 2020 4:54:07 AM PST, Rich Freeman <rich0@gentoo.org> wrote:
>
>Uh, all it does is install kernel sources.  They're useless unless you
>build a kernel using them.
>
>Apparently git and tar are too complicated for Gentoo users, but
>managing symlinks, using make, managing a bootloader, dealing with the
>kernel's configuration system, and so on are just fine?

I use gentoo-sources myself, but still, I would like to propose one reason for keeping vanilla-sources. For me, git/tar are not too complicated, but having V-S in the Gentoo tree would provide another benefit: reducing the number of things I have to check every weekly update cycle. Every piece of software I get from a source other than the Gentoo tree is another website I have to visit every update day to check whether there’s a newer version available. So from that perspective, the advantage of having packages in tree that just install some files is that emerge tells me when a new version is available, rather than me having to go every week to upstream’s website and check manually (or sign up for countless announcement mailing lists).

Of course this would be a bad argument if V-S were lagging behind upstream significantly, and it’s a much better argument for packages that come with expectations of security team support than those that don’t, but it is something to consider.

-- 
Christopher Head

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