Re: [issues] Why eglibc does not provide tarball?

[Brett Neumeier <bneumeier@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 9:55 AM, Joseph S. Myers
<joseph@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> EGLIBC sources are for system integrators, [..]
> They are not an end-user product for ordinary GNU/Linux
> distribution users, and [..] are something for those building a
> GNU/Linux system from scratch who have the expertise in the many different
> areas of such a system needed to do so and avoid the many pitfalls that
> arise in the process.

This is certainly a common and reasonable point of view!

However, there are also some people like me, who are sort of a hybrid
of the two things -- both an "ordinary GNU/Linux distribution user"
and a system integrator: when I am installing a new GNU/Linux system,
I like to do so by compiling everything myself, from source code,
using a recipe like the one provided by the Linux From Scratch
project. (Personally, I like the Cross Linux From Scratch variant.)

I believe that it is worthwhile to lower the bar as much as possible
for other people like me who want to build their systems from the
ground up, rather than relying on others who know how to do so,
because (in my view) making it easy and straightforward to build a
system from source is in line with the ideals of the free software
movement -- democratizing knowledge and making it possible for any
interested person to learn from the work of others, rather than
allowing complicated processes and tasks to remain difficult and
obscure.

With that in mind, given that all of the other components of a
computer system -- including other components that are primarily
intended for system integrators, like the binutils and C compiler --
are available in the form of tarballs (with patches that correct known
bugs), it seems to me that the C library should be available in that
form as well.

Whether or not the eglibc project members agree with that point of
view, my plan is to create tarballs, and sign them, and make them
available to interested individuals via ftp and http. Ideally, I would
like to do this under the auspices of the eglibc project per se, so
that people who want to get eglibc releases in the form of tarballs
can do so by going to eglibc.org...does that seem feasible? Feel free
to contact me (on- or off-list) to discuss the matter further.

Cheers,

Brett Neumeier

-- 
Brett Neumeier (bneumeier@xxxxxxxxx)