[oe] inc file discussion

[Ulf Samuelsson]

Frans Meulenbroeks skrev:
> Dear all,
> 
> I see a lot of diversity in .inc files, and I was wondering whether we
> should not try to come up with some guidelines about their purpose,
> what should go in it, what not etc etc.
> 
> Some observations and questions:
> 
> Some of the inc files use INC_PR whereas others do not.
> 
> Some people seem to use .inc file as a way to save bytes in the
> archive and really put everything in it (including things like
> DESCRIPTION, LICENSE etc etc).
> While I agree that DESCRIPTION will probably not change between
> versions and LICENSE is also unlikely to change, it might be more user
> friendly to put them in the .bb file
> (so when you open the .bb file you immediate see the basic information
> of a package)
> It does not really make things more work when upgrading to a new
> version since I assume most people do like me and either do a git mv
> or a cp from an older version (which retains the info).
> 
> What I also noticed is .inc files saying things like:
> DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-1"
> Do we want this in an inc file? I'd say an inc file is shared between
> all versions; Personally I would prefer setting the -1 in the .bb
> file, not in the .inc
> 
> And then there is DEPENDS in .inc files. I think there is some
> potential cause of getting unneeded DEPENDS
> Picture the following scenario: a new version needs an additional
> package, it gets added to the DEPENDS of the .inc file and suddenly
> older versions also get this DEPENDS (maybe unneeded).
> 
> I hope you get the idea.
> And of course I know that .inc files are useful (e.g when it comes to
> sharing python scripts etc). Then again, I feel sometimes we do too
> much in them.
> 
> How do others feel about this?
> 
> Frans.
> 
> PS: did a quick grep on D_P in the inc files. See below (and yes, I
> understand the reasons behind some of the, but some other cases seem
> strange to me e.g what is the point of setting D_P for all versions of
> a recipe to -1, I feel this does not change things compared to the
> normal case (where D_P defaults to 0) (and overrides in a recipe will
> set it to a positive value anyway)
> 
> binutils/mingw-binutils.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-1"
> devio/devio-cvs.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-1"
> dtc/dtc_git.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-1"
> gcc/gcc-4.1.0.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-1"
> gcc/gcc-4.3.1.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-99"
> gcc/gcc-4.3.2.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-999"
> gcc/gcc-4.3.3.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-999"
> gcc/gcc-4.3.4.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-999"
> gcc/gcc-4.4.1.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-999"
> gcc/gcc-4.4.2.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-999"
> gcc/gcc-4.4.4.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-999"
> gcc/gcc-4.5.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-999"
> gcc/gcc-svn.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-999"
> gdb/gdb.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE_avr32 = "-99"
> gdb/gdbserver.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE_avr32 = "-99"
> gstreamer/gst-common.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-1"
> linux/ixp4xx-kernel.inc:# DEFAULT_PREFERENCE is set automagically in
> this file as
> linux/ixp4xx-kernel.inc:    bb.data.setVar("DEFAULT_PREFERENCE", pref-mmac, d)
> linux/ixp4xx-kernel.inc:    # bb.note("DEFAULT_PREFERENCE := %s" % (pref-mmac))
> mesa/mesa-7.8.2.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE_shr = "2"
> mesa/mesa-dri.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-1"
> mingw/mingw-runtime.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-1"
> mingw/mingw-runtime.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE_mingw32 = "1"
> mingw/mingw-w32api.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-1"
> mingw/mingw-w32api.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE_mingw32 = "1"
> python/python.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-26"
> qt4/qt-4.6.0.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-1"
> qt4/qt-4.6.2.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-1"
> qt4/qt-4.6.3.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-1"
> qt4/qt-4.7.0.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-1"
> util-linux-ng/util-linux-ng.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-1"
> wpa-supplicant/wpa-supplicant-0.6.inc:DEFAULT_PREFERENCE = "-2"
> 
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Looks good to me.
Why not start a Wiki page on guidelines and then we can update as we get
an agreement

Best Regards
Ulf Samuelsson