[petsc-users] petsc externalpackage directory

[Barry Smith]

> On Feb 2, 2016, at 10:01 PM, Jed Brown <jed at jedbrown.org> wrote:
> 
> Barry Smith <bsmith at mcs.anl.gov> writes:
> 
>>> On Feb 2, 2016, at 7:00 PM, Jed Brown <jed at jedbrown.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Satish Balay <balay at mcs.anl.gov> writes:
>>>> Or you can copy the whole '$PETSC_ARCH/externalpackages' dir over to
>>>> this other machine [and place in the same location - for any
>>>> PETSC_ARCH you plan to use..]
>>> 
>>> This sounds unreliable.
>> 
>>  In what way? 
> 
> You'll be building in a dirty directory (one that was used for a
> different PETSC_ARCH).  If the project doesn't manage their dependencies
> perfectly, it could use a build artifact from a different PETSC_ARCH,
> which would result in linking errors (for example).

  You are right, this could be an issue

>  I'd rather cache
> the tarballs (with checksum) or use git repositories (which can be
> reliably cleaned)

  Ok then you write the code to do this. It doesn't currently exist (and I am not sure we want to be in the business of writing a full package management system :-).

   Anybody who thinks that a computer system that doesn't allow direct downloads of open source tarballs or git repositories (because of security considerations) but allows people to indirectly download those exact same tarballs or git repositories (as if that indirect download somehow magically cleanses the tarballs or repositories) is a damn fool anyways.

  Barry

> than simply build in dirty directories that cannot be
> cleaned.