[syslinux] gnu-efi submodule

[Ady]

> Hi,
> 
> On 16/09/2015 21:51, Ady via Syslinux wrote:
>  > Considering that The Syslinux Project recommends, generally speaking,
>  > using official binaries
> 
> Not withstanding this recommendation, shouldn't a source tarball associated
> to an _official_release_ (to clarify: 6.04 when it will be ready, not
> 7.04-pre<n>) contain all that is needed for a regular user to rebuild all
> binaries (included the PE/COFF images) using a "standard" toolchain
> (with possibly some clearly stated requirements about that toolchain and/or
> any other component of the system)?
> 
> If a specific component is not included in the tarball, IMO some document
> in it should indicate that it is necessary and where to find it.
> 
> Or is that not possible for some reason?
> 
> Cheers,
> Didier
 
I wish that the required steps to rebuild "anything" in open source 
would be documented appropriately. Reality seems to be different.

The Syslinux Project is certainly _not_ trying to obscure things in 
purpose, but I doubt "just about anyone" can successfully rebuild every 
single component included in Syslinux without some learning curve and 
some experience.

Specifically regarding gnu-efi, I would tend to think that including 
the whole code (matching some commit of the original, or something of 
that sort) in a Syslinux release tarball (or whichever other archive 
format) is not a good idea, for several reasons. So, the alternative - 
according to your email - would be to document how to rebuild the 
gnu-efi submodule used in Syslinux.

At this point, there are three *.sh scripts, and they use either 
another tarball (as Mageia does) or git, pointing to a specific commit 
in the gnu-efi repository. This is not always very comfortable for 
testing / rebuilding, and part of the discussion is about how to 
improve this method.

I don't know whether this answers your question.

Regards,
Ady.
 
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