[cfarm-users] Install wget on cfarm{104,119,240) ?

[Simon Josefsson]

Simon Marchi via cfarm-users <cfarm-users at lists.tetaneutral.net> writes:

> On 2025-02-18 13:37, Bruno Haible via cfarm-users wrote:
>> Martin Guy wrote:
>>> $ ssh cfarm119 'echo $PATH'
>>> /usr/bin:/etc:/usr/sbin:/usr/ucb:/usr/bin/X11:/sbin:/usr/java8_64/jre/bin:/usr/java8_64/bin
>>>
>>> Could that be added to ssh's default PATH? Then there'd be curl everywhere.
>> 
>> Please not. It is important that the cfarm machines represent, as much
>> as possible, the state of an arbirary machine with the same OS out there.
>> 
>> It would invalidate our portability testing of package XY if the
>> configure script of that package finds that all nice utitilies,
>> from 'curl' to 'gperf', are available on AIX. Then we make a release
>> of that package with that assumption. Then we get reports from people
>> that on _their_ AIX machines that this assumption is not true.
>> 
>> You are free to change you default PATH via .profile or .bashrc.
>> But don't force it on all users of the cfarm.
>
> Agreed.
>
> I think it would be helpful to have MOTD messages indicating the
> specifities of each machine, for instance where to find that magic
> directory where the modern stuff is installed.

In fact, I think this approach should actually be the documented
intended way the cfarm machines should be setup.  One of the first
question that arise when building a package on exotic machine is what
kind of additional software was installed on it compared to verbatim OS
distribution.  It is nice that a lot of GNU software is commonly
available, but as Bruno said having it installed by default really hurts
the purpose of build testing.  Alas even /usr/local/bin is not safe
since some software looks for additional components there by default.

/Simon
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 1251 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.tetaneutral.net/pipermail/cfarm-users/attachments/20250218/7d702715/attachment.sig>