Bug#398404: branch created for the pbuilder mode option

[Osamu Aoki]

Hi,

Please remember not to release this kind of change without updating
cowdancer (junichi requested this.)

On Fri, Jan 08, 2010 at 05:59:19PM -0500, Loïc Minier wrote:
> Hey
> 
> On Thu, Jan 07, 2010, Osamu Aoki wrote:
> > This is my proposed changes:
> >  http://git.debian.org/?p=pbuilder/pbuilder.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/osamu
> > 
> > I hope this is now easier to review.
> 
>  This is excellent!  It's exactly what I intended to work on next!  See
>  http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pbuilder-maint/2009-December/003373.html
>  and thread.

I see.

Switching environment via $BASE_DIR/$DISTRIBUTION-base.tgz only works
for tar.gz.  --no-targz and uml-environment requires different codes and
get complicated.  Adding extra path just under /var/cache/pbuilder/ is
cleaner.  You can remove all related files with:
 $ sudo rm -rf /var/cache/pbuilder/<pbprofile>

(FYI: my old patch is at http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=398404 )

Back then, I had a bit more complicated patch which also changes
behavior of setting /etc/apt contents in June 2008.  I think those part
related to /etc/apt contents is interesting but add too much complexity
to pbuilder and I decided to drop them now.

(Since my old changes were too much and harder to review, junichi asked
to make a branch which can be reviewed and here am I with write access
to git. I have been slow since I wanted to rethink what is important to
add as new feature.)

This patch is simplified one.   

>  I will review your code changes; however I do prefer the name "profile"
>  over "mode".  The "mode" reminds me of the mode of operation such as
>  "build" versus "create" versus "update" etc.  Do you think it would be
>  ok to call this profile or something else?

No objection.  I changed them.  Now short option is: -p

FYI: I just picked mode as the shortest word from candidates:
 mode environment switch buildmode

This is somewhat tested with pbuilder/pdebuild with targz and no-targz.
But uml side is not tested at all since I do not use it.

TODO list:

* create patch for cowdancer (help needed) !!! IMPORTANT !!!
* code/manpage review        (help needed)
* update both pbuilder and cowdancer
* Update documentation       (after discussion)
  * deprecating user for mangling configuration variable containing
    /var/cache/pbuilder directly.  Less error prone.
  * For shared aptcache, recommend to create symlink in directory than
    playing with config file.  Less error prone.
  * 4.8 "Using environmental variables ..." may be substituted.

Comment:

I thought about switching configuration files with mode/profile too.
For the sake of simplicity, I did not.  You can still select them like

$ pbuilder --profile myprofile --create --configfile myconfig

Osamu