[csw-maintainers] checkpkg: check for empty files?

[Maciej (Matchek) Bliziński]

2011/9/28 Dagobert Michelsen <dam at opencsw.org>:
> Hi,
>
> Am 27.09.2011 um 19:24 schrieb Sebastian Kayser:
>> what do you guys think about a checkpkg check that throws an error if it
>> encounters empty files in a package? Are there valid cases for shipping
>> empty files? Maciej, can you query the pkgdb for empty files?
>>
>> Background:
>> stunnel overhauled its autoconf setup with the recent 4.44 release and
>> as a result, messed up its sample certificate generation. The generated
>> and packaged sample certificate was empty. A good look at the build
>> process showed the issue, but this could have also gone unnoticed.
>
> This looks like a perfect situation for a plugin where anyone interested
> can check for empty files to have a rationale for the real implementation.

I'm not that keen on investing time in developing a plugin
infrastructure without evidence that it will be actually used.
I developed a plugin infrastructure once, advocated it[1], and while
the reception of the new functionality was generally good, there was
no interest in plugins.

What I suggest we do now, is this: I will expose the package stats
data via REST.  When someone writes a check using that data, and wants
to include it in the standard checkpkg runs, we'll add some form of
data passing from checkpkg to their code.  Does it sound good?

Maciej

[1] http://lists.opencsw.org/pipermail/maintainers/2010-January/010918.html