Re: new to the list - fresh perspectives

"Bruce Dubbs" ([email protected] via alfs-discuss Mailing List) <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.linux.lfs.automated
Message-ID <[email protected]>
On 8/25/23 20:55, super1337 ([email protected] via alfs-discuss Mailing List) wrote:
> Greetings, everyone!
> 
> I've completed a handful of LFS builds over the course of time, as well as a few 
> successful jhalfs and the preceding script as well.  I'd like to take a few minutes 
> to voice some thoughts I have.
> 
> First and foremost, I thank each and every contributor, no matter the scope of your 
> involvement, for keeping the project going.  With so many things now moving to 
> containerized software packages, and traditional package managers are starting to 
> spin uncontrollably on the bloat boat, I feel like LFS is extremely important.  For 
> the love of goodness, don't give up! (A wonderful article on jmmv.dev entitled "Fast 
> Machines Slow Machines" explores the problems of the current development paradigm 
> very well.)  Truly, thank you.
> 
> On to some suggestions.  Please understand that I haven't taken the time to try 
> learning how the jhalfs script works, and some suggestions may be unreasonable.
> 
> 1) when I first move into the jhlfs directory and issue make, one of the first menu 
> options to configure is which version of the book to build. However, I don't 
> understand how to pick a specific version using the information that's provided.  It 
> would be far more clear if a user could put in a version number, or have an 
> additional xml file to download to the root of the jhalfs directory

I'll let Pierre answer some of these, but I can contribute.  The version of the book 
referenced is either sysV or systemd, not a specific release.  The main reason for 
jhalfs is to automate development.

> 2) xml files are the next thing on my mind.  As I recall, there is an option to use a 
> supplied XML to work from.  Would it be an issue to have a list of such files 
> directly on the alfs -> downloads page?

You really need to do a git checkout of the xml.

$ git clone https://git.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs.git lfs-git

After that you can change to that directory and update it with 'git pull'

> 3) bootable media is something that I dearly miss.  download the iso, boot it, and 
> now you instantly have everything you need right in front of you to build the 
> system.  I have an i586 beside me that is begging for a LFS build.  As it is, I need 
> to install debian jessie on it, compile a new kernel, do some upgrading, and now it's 
> able to compile a current LFS.  Having an ISO to download that's built on a 586 would 
> be quite the boon!  Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm of the understanding that 
> running something build on 586 libs will work, and produce correct objects, for 
> modern arch's.
> 
> 4) a single tar file that includes all patches and sources would also be a big 
> benefit.  I see that at some point in the past week or two, someone updated the 
> zlib1.2.13 link.  I found myself very frustrated trying to find that version 
> elsewhere, and then to get the script to just accept the version I manually 
> downloaded.  I've had to hunt down sources in the past, but never got as irritated as 
> I did with zlib.

For LFS, see http://ftp-osl.osuosl.org/pub/lfs/lfs-packages/*.tar
There is no equivalent for BLFS for all packages, but all the packages are at 
http://ftp-osl.osuosl.org/pub/blfs/

> 5) while the build script is running, it's very clear which package is being built, 
> and how long it's been running. Personally, I'd like to see something of the 
> following nature:
> ____a) after the ch5 binutils SBU has been time'd, the other handfull of the 
> toolchain lists the first SBU time - and does the math for the approximate build time 
> of {current} package
> ____b) each of the handful of the toolchain is also time'd
> ____c) when ch5 is complete, the SBU is re-calculated
> ____d) moving though chapters 6,7, and 8 the SBU value and approximate build time is 
> displayed using the recalculated average of all of ch5
> Benefit being here is to hopefully have a more accurate SBU presented, and to give 
> the impatient human behind the screen a very reasonable estimation of when to come 
> back and check on things.

The SBU is only an approximation.  It is meant to just give you an idea about how 
long it will take to build a package relative to the first binutils.  It depends on 
your hardware.  I think it is a success if your SBU numbers are within 10% of ours, 
but at times they can vary a lot more than that.

   -- Bruce


> I should probably conclude my first email at this point, before I write an entire 
> volume.
> 
> Once again developers, what you are doing in this project IS very important.
> Thank you so much.
>

-- 
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