Arch Linux

shaunsingh14

Member

Registered: 2012-01-07

Posts: 97

[SOLVED] Why is there a PKGBUILD made available for the Android SDK?

Hello all my fellow Arch users.

I'm just curious as to WHY there's a PKGBUILD in the AUR made available for the Android SDK. I mean, it's already made available at the Android Developer's website, and the only things you'd need are Java, Python, and 32-bit application support, and correct me if I'm wrong, but usually you have the option to install those the moment you're selecting packages for Arch Linux while you're installing them.

I don't have anything against the PKGBUILD, it saved me a load of headaches trying to configure the SDK, and limited my pains to merely editing my .bashrc file to include the full path to the Android SDK tools and platform tools folders.

I find it strange. But then again, I find the concept of an i686-optimized GNU/Linux operating system that leaves all the major configuration to me that also kicks major ass strange as well.

Last edited by shaunsingh14 (2012-01-08 19:34:35)

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I made this account 10 years ago when I was an ignorant and insufferable teenager.
I apologise to all the people I annoyed with my cringe in the past.

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,803

Re: [SOLVED] Why is there a PKGBUILD made available for the Android SDK?

Because it installs files outside of the user's home directory.  Pacman keeps track of all the files that are placed at the various places in the file system.  When the package is removed, the database knows where to find all the bodies and remove them.  Also, if the files exist, for whatever reason, prior to the package being installed, Pacman will prevent them from being stepped on.

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Awebb

Member

Registered: 2010-05-06

Posts: 6,298

Re: [SOLVED] Why is there a PKGBUILD made available for the Android SDK?

My brain refuses to form an adequate answer to your question. Downloading $APPLICATION from the developers website, extracting it, manually solving dependencies, figuring out a good path to put it and symlink it to /usr/bin is exactly what you do not want to do on an Arch Linux system, therefore you create a PKGBUILD, which enables pacman to know about the package. Just because it does not need to be compiled, does not mean it is a bad idea to create a PKGBUILD. If this is not the purpose of the AUR, then I must have gotten it wrong entirely.

Maybe if you took another AUR package (of your choice) and compared it to the Android SDK PKGBUILD, I could comprehend what's different about this one.

shaunsingh14

Member

Registered: 2012-01-07

Posts: 97

Re: [SOLVED] Why is there a PKGBUILD made available for the Android SDK?

My brain refuses to form an adequate answer to your question. Downloading $APPLICATION from the developers website, extracting it, manually solving dependencies, figuring out a good path to put it and symlink it to /usr/bin is exactly what you do not want to do on an Arch Linux system, therefore you create a PKGBUILD, which enables pacman to know about the package. Just because it does not need to be compiled, does not mean it is a bad idea to create a PKGBUILD. If this is not the purpose of the AUR, then I must have gotten it wrong entirely.

Maybe if you took another AUR package (of your choice) and compared it to the Android SDK PKGBUILD, I could comprehend what's different about this one.

ouch, i was just wondering. i did migrate here from ubuntu after all. but i was just curious, because it reminded me of the android sdk installer gentoo had when i was still running it on a virtual machine a few months ago.

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I made this account 10 years ago when I was an ignorant and insufferable teenager.
I apologise to all the people I annoyed with my cringe in the past.

Trilby

Inspector Parrot

Registered: 2011-11-29

Posts: 29,550

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Why is there a PKGBUILD made available for the Android SDK?

I don't have anything against the PKGBUILD, it saved me a load of headaches ...

Nobody likes headaches.  The answer is in your own question.  In addition to the headaches you anticipated, ewaller highlighted a significant source of future headaches if there was no PKGBUILD.

I don't use Android or the SDK - but if I ever choose to I'll be darn glad there's a PKGBUILD already.  Why NOT have one available?

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"UNIX is simple and coherent..." - Dennis Ritchie, "GNU's Not UNIX" -  Richard Stallman

Psykorgasm

Member

Registered: 2011-11-24

Posts: 177

Re: [SOLVED] Why is there a PKGBUILD made available for the Android SDK?

Awebb put it quite nicely I think. Remember, shaunsingh14, the 4 magical letters: KISS !

shaunsingh14

Member

Registered: 2012-01-07

Posts: 97

Re: [SOLVED] Why is there a PKGBUILD made available for the Android SDK?

Thanks guys

The Arch community is much nicer than I expected.

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I made this account 10 years ago when I was an ignorant and insufferable teenager.
I apologise to all the people I annoyed with my cringe in the past.

x33a

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2009-08-15

Posts: 4,587

Re: [SOLVED] Why is there a PKGBUILD made available for the Android SDK?

@ shaunsingh14

You know, in ubuntu, there are ppas that serve almost the same purpose, though they serve binaries, whereas using aur, we compile the application ourselves.

As others mentioned, the concept is package management, which makes keeping track of the files, and upgrading or removing them easier.

For e.g. firefox provides binaries, but we still prefer the one provided from the repos or aur.