Goal of this page: try to summarize the discussion on the list so remarks and opinions don't get lost or get repeated after a certain time. Feel free to add/edit/move/expand/correct/.. this page.
DistTag: 'dist' renamed to 'dtag'
Update: the name of the variable is changed from 'dist' to 'dtag' in the rpmforge project. A small example of the use of this tag can be found on the page driesverachtert/RpmforgeSpecfileSnippets.
DistTag
It's possible to pass parameters with values when you're building an rpm. For example you could add a parameter which contains an indication of the distribution you're building the rpm on.
At rpmforge, the parameter 'dist' is used with values like "el5" or "fc7" so it's possible to have buildrequires which depend on the distribution: see for example xautolock.spec. This makes it possible to use 1 spec file for a lot of distributions when only very small changes are needed for each distribution. At rpmforge, the build system automatically adds for example '.el5.rf' to the release tag before the build starts. The release tag in the spec file in the subversion does not contain any parameters.
At a later date, fedora extras introduces also the parameter dist but with values like ".fc3", with a dot. The parameter '%{?dist}' is added to the release tag of each spec file. The dist parameter is not used for conditionals in the spec file.
Some questions:
- Are we going to use a parameter which identifies the distribution? This parameter would be passed to rpmbuild by the build system.
- What will be the name of the parameter in rpmrepo which identifies the distribution?
- Proposals: 'dist', 'dtag', 'disttag', ...
- What are the possible values of this parameter?
- Proposal: 'el5', 'fc7', 'nodist', ...
- Should the release tag contain another parameter or should the buildsystem automatically add a repotag?
History: