Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2005 16:48:04 +0200 From: Alexander Leidinger <Alexander@Leidinger.net> To: Doug Barton <dougb@FreeBSD.org> Cc: cvs-src@FreeBSD.org, Pawel Worach <pawel.worach@gmail.com>, src-committers@FreeBSD.org, cvs-all@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: cvs commit: src ObsoleteFiles.inc Message-ID: <20050724164804.47a029d6@Magellan.Leidinger.net> In-Reply-To: <42E2DA50.2000205@FreeBSD.org> References: <200507231942.j6NJgdks037508@repoman.freebsd.org> <42E2A029.1090404@gmail.com> <42E2DA50.2000205@FreeBSD.org>
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On Sat, 23 Jul 2005 17:01:20 -0700
Doug Barton <dougb@FreeBSD.org> wrote:
> Pawel Worach wrote:
>
> > While you are at it can you add this one too.
>
> Done. Please note for next time that you need to add a comment indicating
> why the file was removed. This can easily be found from the CVS logs.
>
> BTW, this is exactly why I don't like this mechanism for cleaning stale
> files. This list was, as I predicted it would be, quite literally out of
> date when it was committed. This is with all due respect to the effort that
> went into producing it. It's the methodology that I'm opposed to here.
The technical fact behind the "out of date" part is:
- I listed those old files which I had on my machine.
- I listed those old files which some told me about.
- I missed 2-3 files/dirs.
- There's a bug: I use shell globs, but this only worked in a previous
version, not in the current version of the targets. So far nobody seems
to have noticed those files... at least nobody complained.
> I much prefer the dynamic method suggested by myself, mezz, and others which
> scans the directories and compares the ages of the files to a known value.
> This not only has the benefit of not needing a static list to support it,
> but it also has the benefit of alerting you to pieces left behind when you
> (for example) add a NO_FOO knob to your make.conf file to avoid building
> part of the world.
I don't object, but whoever wants to do it: good luck, it isn't as easy
as it sounds. You have to put a lot of effort into this (sometimes I
have more than one ports tree in /usr, I hope the dynamic approach
respects this).
While I agree that nobody should put "foreign" files into the
basesystem: users do it and any dynamic approach would want to remove
those files. While "I don't do that(TM)", I would be upset if something
would remove my files.
With this static approach we have a typical 20/80 situation. With 20%
of effort we have a 80% solution (still some things to do by hand, this
isn't much effort and we get a shiny feature). For the other 20% of the
solution, we need to invest 80% of effort... Now that we got this
software engineering example out the door: actually I think the numbers
are more like 5/95...
Bye,
Alexander.
--
Where do you think you're going today?
http://www.Leidinger.net Alexander @ Leidinger.net
GPG fingerprint = C518 BC70 E67F 143F BE91 3365 79E2 9C60 B006 3FE7
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