• driesverachtert
• MinimalBuildEnvironment

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.

Minimal build environment

Bugfixing, testing and reproducing builds is easier if everyone uses the same minimal build environment. This means we should have a list with rpms which should always be installed in your chroot or build environment when you want to rebuild a source rpm from rpmrepo. If for example 'make' is already included in this minimal build environment, then you don't need to add 'make' as a buildrequirement in your spec file. If possible, this list should be +/- the same on each distribution/version/architecture.

There are quite some possibilities:

• A very very minimal environment: the build requirements should even contain gcc, make or gcc-c++ if needed.
• Use a list from existing projects:

  • Fedora: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging/Guidelines#Exceptions

  • openSUSE: defined by http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/Tools/Fedora_7/src/build-2007.09.14-1.1.src.rpm

• Use yum groups, for example everything in 'Development Libraries' and 'Development Tools'
• Add an rpmrepo-buildenvironment package which requires a certain set of tools and libraries.

• All packages needed for a certain standard, for example 'LSB 3.1 C++', see http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/Specifications

Opinions on the mailinglist:

• Johnny Hughes: use an existing list, the current list used by redhat and fedora

• C.M. Connelly: agrees with Johnny

• Axel Thimm: currently uses very minimal environment without gcc-c++

• Troy Dawson: "Core", "Base", "Development Libraries", and at least the mandatory packages from "Development Tools"

• Dries Verachtert: start of thread