StepanKasal/Add to Exception List

A proposal to add several packages to the Exception List

I believe the following packages should be present in every buildroot for any Fedora package:

• findutils shall be in buildroot

• gawk shall be in buildroot

• grep shall be in buildroot

• info shall be in buildroot

(Click the link next to each package to see the rationale.)

The minimal build environment for Fedora is defined through the Exception List. Packages on this list, together with all the recursively resolved requirements, are present in every koji buildroot, and the spec files need not Buildrequire them. For example, if a package needs "cmp" to build correctly, no "Buildrequires: diffutils" is needed, because diffuitils is on the Exception List. Now let's suppose a package needs "objdump" to build correctly. This utility is in package binutils, which is required by the package gcc, which is listed. It's safe to suppose that future versions of gcc will still require binutils, thus it is not necessary to add any Buildrequires in this case, either.

But the situation with the above packages is different. Let's see:

gawk

This package used to be part of the buildroot but no longer is, which is a problem, see the rationale linked above.

findutils

This package used to be required by coreutils, but no longer is. I think it is currently present in buildroot, but the chain of dependencies which brings it is unclear. Thus I propose to add it to the list.

grep

The grep is currently required by coreutils. But who knows it won't follow the fate of findutils?

info

Each package which contains documentation in info format calls /sbin/install-info during "make install". The buildroot currently contains /sbin/install-info because most GNU packages, e.g. coreutils, contain Requires(pre): /sbin/install-info

But is this the right guarantee that /sbin/install-info will be in the buildroot?

How long will it take before we notice that this "Requires(pre):" shall be avoided for --excludedocs installations?

Conclusion

Has this convinced you that the above packages shall be added to the Exception List?

If not, I'd be glad to hear your arguments. Especially if you are a voting member of FESCo.