Precompiled binaries?

Timo · n00b Joined: 30 Sep 2002 Posts: 23

Hi,

first of all: Sorry if this question already occured, but there's nothing in the FAQ and in the forums, so I try here (hopefully at the right place).

I'm using Gentoo for over half a year now, and it fits very good to my role as KDE developer. But now I'm setting up a server, and I was wondering why we don't provide binary packages. Don't get me wrong, but where other distributions have the possibility to re-build packages from source, why don't we have a possibility to install binary packages instead of the default source building? I prefer building things from scratch, but on the other hand, sometimes, if you need a package pretty quick, you should be able to install it from binary packages.

What I used to do was to build binary packages on my fast development box to feed them into my slow server, and this worked pretty well.

I would contribute binary packages here and there, since the binary package build process is pretty easy.

cheers,
Timo

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20485

Moved from Portage & Programming.

All binary Gentoo seems to cover the topic (seems like I've read others too).

General Note: "All Binary Gentoo" is locked. If this thread turns into a continuation of that thread (i.e., "no new ideas"), I'll move this one over to duplicates.
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Timo · n00b Joined: 30 Sep 2002 Posts: 23

Well, my ponts (ideas) are:

- Gentoo itself shouldn't provide binary packages. It also shouldn't be the default. Binary packages should be an option, in order to test new packages or save alot of compilation time.

- These binary packages should be contributed by certain users, and maybe somebody can create a possibility to contribute these packages. Of course, they should be completely unsupported.

- Binary packages are an option for those people who don't want to miss the base system benefits (I'm a very big fan of the whole system, especially emerge). Other distributions lack such a system and/or are looking incomplete.

rac · Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2003 6:43 am Post subject:

Is this not covered by the GRP? Section 15 of the install guide describes it.
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Timo · n00b Joined: 30 Sep 2002 Posts: 23

Yes, but that only includes selected packages, and I don't know how recent they are (plus I couldn't find that script on my existing gentoo 1.4 installation, so I bet it's only available on the LiveCD).

jonemi · Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2003 8:58 pm Post subject:

OK, so you understand why Gentoo shouldn't try to start providing binary packages? I assume: "Gentoo itself shouldn't provide binary packages[. . .]" means that you do.

So why don't you start a binary gentoo project? I've had the same idea, as I'm sure alot of other people have too. Problem is, nobody wants to do it for one reason or another.

Timo · n00b Joined: 30 Sep 2002 Posts: 23

If the Gentoo guys would provide a space or a package system to share binary gentoo packages, I would immediately contribute

Unfortunately, my web server has a traffic limit, otherwise, I would host the files myself.