[ATrpms-devel] ATrpms rpm macros [was Re: failure building mythtv for FC5]

[Axel Thimm]

On Fri, Aug 31, 2007 at 02:58:53AM -0400, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
> Are these macro files idempotent?  In other words, does reading them
> twice (once in my ~atrpms/.rpmmacros and again in
> /etc/rpm/macros.atrpms) have the same effect as reading them once?
> Certainly reading them twice has not yet genrated a failure (I guess
> it is a third of the way through building mythtv).

I'm not sure, one would need to review them. But rpm has some ugly
garbage collection bugs. If a macros %defines something instead of a
%global then it most likely breaks when redefined as %define was never
intended to be abused the way it currently is.

(background: whenever you read a %define there should be a %global,
%defines were supposed to have local scope only, but due to a bug in
rpm they almost always have global scope so most people used %define
where %global was proper - it creates nice bugs if you use
parameterized macros like bcond_* which then use the proper garbage
collector and suddenly your 1+-level %defines vanish into thin air
...)

Long story short: Never use %defines and some of my macros are older
than that knowledge so they can break when redifined or used
recursively.
-- 
Axel.Thimm at ATrpms.net
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