On: Argh-P-M – Dissecting the RPM file format (2016)

[nailer]

If I was making something to build RPM packages automatically (like the author states), I'd still leverage the existing tools.

But even if I wanted to recreate RPM which the author does (although he doesn't state this) I'd start with the source code.

[icebraining → nailer]

although he doesn't state this

Yes, he does, right in the first paragraphs.

I'd start with the source code.

He started with the formal specification of the RPM format, which includes relevant pieces of the source; how is that not a good place to start?

[nailer → icebraining]

No. He states:

> I ship configuration as system packages. Every distribution has their own tooling and process for building these packages, but I eventually grew tired of the ceremony involved in it, and wrote my own system package compiler.

Which to most engineers would mean making a tool that builds.rpm files, not reimplements the rpm build tools.

[icebraining → nailer]

Read a bit further: I stubbornly refused to add dependencies and use existing tooling (i.e., the rpm-build(1) command). I wanted to serialize the format directly from my own code, like I did for Pacman and Debian packages.

[nailer → icebraining]

Yeah. That's his problem - it's not "to make matters worse" (as OP writes) it's the entire issue.