On Tue, 24 Aug 2010, Stephan Wiesand wrote:

> Connie,
>
> On Aug 24, 2010, at 17:06 , Connie Sieh wrote:
>
>> Are there prebuilt rpms and src.rpm of ROOT (http://root.cern.ch) f=
> or both SL 4 and SL 5 for version 5.26 available?  I have looked for =
> rpms at Dag, EPEL , http://root.cern.ch without success.  There have =
> been a few references to a src rpm but the person who made the spec f=
> ile is not supporting it any more.
>
>
> a minute after your mail, I received the announcement of Fedora 14 al=
> pha - and it's supposed to come with ROOT. No clue who packaged it, b=
> ut that src.rpm is probably a reasonable starting point.
>
> I have my doubts regarding a generally useful ROOT build, though: Thi=
> s software has tons of build time options, often depending on externa=
> l software. A "one size fits all" build would probably depend on a do=
> zen or more additional packages most users won't care for. On the oth=
> er hand, building ROOT for a certain use case is fairly trivial. This=
> may explain why there are few prebuilt packages around.

The user in question needs ROOT for SL 4 with mathmore.  It seems that 
mathmore needs a newer version of gsl than is provided by SL 4 by default.

>
> Another issue is that users tend to create code that works with a cer=
> tain ROOT version only, and any update - even within a major version =
> - is likely to cause grief for some of those depending on the previou=
> s minor release. At the same time, there will be other users requesti=
> ng the very latest release as soon as it's available. Hence, unless y=
> ou're catering for a small and well defined user community, you inevi=
> tably end up providing multiple releases at the same time, and some m=
> echanism to switch between them. I wonder whether the Fedora package =
> provides this...
>
> The bottom line is that providing tailored builds for those actually =
> requesting them is probably the best way to go. Teaching them to crea=
> te those builds themselves may make even more sense.

Maybe ROOT needs a different tailoring model:-)  Plugin's come to mind.

>
> The ROOT release schedule has slowed down recently, so things may be =
> changing. But I don't think that "a prebuilt ROOT rpm" is a general s=
> olution yet.=20
>
> Hope this helps,
> =09Stephan
>
> --=20
> Stephan Wiesand
> DESY -DV-
> Platanenenallee 6
> 15738 Zeuthen, Germany
>

Thanks

-Connie Sieh