[Tfug] gcc and glibc

[Bexley Hall]

Hi Paul,

--- On Mon, 9/7/09, Paul Lemmons <paul at lemmons.name> wrote:

> Ok, I gotta ask cuz I just don't get it. Why? Why spend the
> hours watching your computer churn and burn as it compiles
> your system? And then have it not work like you want it to;
> having really nothing to show for the effort. I have never
> understood this. My son used to use Gentoo and compiled
> everything. I would laugh because while I was *using* my
> computer he was compiling.
> 
> Is it a case of: Q) Why climb Everest? A) Because it is
> there! or something else?

I've never done 'make world' on any of my boxes (NetBSD).
*But*, I frequently rebuild kernels (I trim out devices
that I don't have and add devices that I *now* have, etc.).

And, I *always* build "packages" (I don't know what the Linux
camp calls "applications that are not distributed with the
kernel+OS") from source.  In the latter case, it is usually 
because packages often have more configuration options and
I want to make sure the package is configured the way I
want *my* system set up (e.g., enable IPv6 -- yes/no).

Also, the packages are maintained by a different crew.
I often find lots of little bugs in them that *should*
have been caught (but, perhaps the guy who built the
package itself didn't catch).  E.g., I examine all of
the warnings from the compiler to see which truly *can*
be ignored and which really are genuine problems that
need to be fixed.

<shrug>  One could argue that it would be easier to just 
rebuild the entire *system* (sans packages) than it is to
screw around with the packages, but... :-(