On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 09:04:38PM +0100, Keith Roberts wrote:
On Tue, 30 Sep 2008, Peter Robinson wrote:
>To: Keith Roberts <keith(a)karsites.net>,
> For testers of Fedora Core development releases
> <fedora-test-list(a)redhat.com>
>From: Peter Robinson <pbrobinson(a)gmail.com>
>Subject: Re: Help me triage
>
>>>>># Is there a general policy around using perl in pre/post ?
>>>>>https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=462996
>>>>
>>>>There is no such policy.
>>>
>>>I wish there was a policy for not using perl in pre/post scripts. The
>>>number of packages that use perl in a single line of the spec file and
>>>don't require it as a general dependency hence pulling in all of perl
>>>for nothing.
>>
>>Not been following this topic that closely. Are you referring to using
>>perl
>>for pre/post RPM package installation?
>
>Yes. As per the RHBZ bug that's mentioned (and just been closed
>because the perl script has been replaced with a sed script).
>
>Peter
Would it be practical to use a PHP CLI script for pre/post
RPM installation - not in this particular case, but in
general? I find that bash scripts are a bit cryptic, and
lack the power that PHP CLI scripts can offer. I have
written backup scripts using PHP CLI mode scripts, and then
called bash O/S shell programs that are not natively
suppoerted by PHP. This gives me all the power of bash shell
scripting, and all the added functionality and ease of use
of PHP syntax :)
This is totally missing the point. The fact that RPM %post scripts
exist at all is bad enough, but if you find yourself needing more
"power" than just shell its usually a sign that you're solving the
wrong problem. PHP isn't helping here - in fact it would be
encouraging over-use of scripts. It is a pretty reasonable generalization
that if you need more than shell, then you're probably doing it wrong.
Furthermore anything you do in %post, needs to be reversable upon
uninstall for %postun when the last instance of a package is removed.
If your script is longer than a couple of lines of shell, then its
highly unlikely you'll be able to create a bug-free %postun to
reverse its action.
Daniel
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