Re: Distribution conditionals in spec files

On Tue, Jun 30, 2026 at 7:18 PM Michal Schorm <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Daniel's count summary was interesting to me, here's some more:
>
> %{?rhel} ~ 1750
> %{?fedora} ~ 1750
> %{?flatpak} ~ 120
> %{?suse_version} ~ 95
> %{?bootstrap} ~ 85
> %{?epel} ~54
> %{?centos} ~ 24
> %{?eln} ~ 16
> %{?_module_build} ~ 10
> %{?mageia} ~ 6
> %{?snap} ~ 5
> %{?is_opensuse} ~ 4
>  %{?sle_version} ~ 4
> %{?amzn} ~ 1 (condor.spec)
> %{?ubuntu} ~ 1 (tlog.spec)
>  %{?debian} ~ 1 (tlog.spec)
> %{?container_build} ~ 1
>
>
> %{?el10} ~ 12
> %{?el9} ~ 31
> %{?el8} ~ 57
> %{?el7} ~ 51
> %{?el6} ~ 21
> %{?el5} ~ 11
>
>
> In my view, the value of the "SPECfile macro jungle" that makes
> maintenance easier for me - the person who interacts with that SPEC
> the most - is higher than the price occasional visitors with access
> pay. *But* I'm biased by being the maintainer of the packages I do the
> vast majority of the work on.
>
>
> What I always wondered about, when visiting other packages, was *why*
> there is a macro jungle.
> And I always received different answers for different packages from
> different maintainers, based on their own preferences regarding how
> important, for example, RHEL 5 SPECfile compatibility is to them, etc.
> Before making any restrictive decisions, I would *love* to hear from
> all these people about their reasons and justifications: why that
> system is best for them, or what prevents them from cleaning it up. I
> am genuinely interested.
>
> Without that, I'm afraid, we'll only tell each other "I interact with
> SPECfiles in this way, so let's require others to format SPECs so it's
> easiest for *me* to work with them".

Whatever FPC decides to do for distribution conditionals in general, I
think it would make sense to say that conditionals for distribution
*versions* that are EOL / no longer supported should not be used and /
or should be removed as soon as possible.

Fabio
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