August 26, 2013
On Monday, August 26, 2013 09:09:02 Tobias Pankrath wrote:
> On Sunday, 25 August 2013 at 22:35:50 UTC, John Colvin wrote:
> > OT:
> > 
> > This might be the final straw that takes me over to Arch.
> > 
> > How are things over on that side of linux? I've been using ubuntu/lubuntu/fedora/mint on various machines for years but never really tried out the more DIY distros.
> 
> I'm using Arch for quite a while now. It does take considerably longer to setup, especially the first time. I'd say, you should only do it, if you like to  tinker with your system.
> 
> There are some configuration 'errors' from time to time. So I needed to manually add some udev rules and change file permissions to make my printer fly recently.
> 
> Also you'll encounter problems during updates that need manual intervention. Reading the news at archlinux.org before updating is a must.
> 
> That said, you don't have more issues with Arch than with any other distro. Maybe other issues. And you get the newest software and an easy way to rebuild packages or make your own.

Arch is fantastic if you're willing to get your hands dirty a bit. It's nowhere near as hard to use as Gentoo is, but it does take a fair but of manual setup and management. I definitely wouldn't call it newbie-friendly. But it's by the easiest distro that I've ever used for having bleeding edge software, and everything is vanilla instead of being screwed with to make distro-specific. So, if you're willing to tinker a bit, it's well worth it IMHO, and for the most part, once it's going, it's not that hard to keep it going, but don't use it if you want something that "just works."

- Jonathan M Davis
August 26, 2013
On 08/25/2013 10:48 PM, Dicebot wrote:> On Sunday, 25 August 2013 at 20:33:49 UTC, Jordi Sayol wrote:
>> What's the Arch Linux way to name shared libraries? On debian,
>> "libphobos2.so" (libphobos2-dev) is a symlink to real
>> "libphobos2.so.0.63.0" (libphobos2-63) shared library.
>> "libphobos2.so.0.63" (libphobos2-63) SONAME symlink is created with
>> the "ldconfig" command during the deb package (un)installation.
>
> On Arch currently there are only libphobos2.so (actualy binary) and
> libphobos2.so.0.63 (automatically created during installation). I am
> going to ask on IRC if any other symlinks are expected.

Usually the actual binary has the fully qualified version number, and libphobos2.so would be included/created by the devel package.

This would allow someone to install multiple versions of the same lib side by side if needed.

Also Archlinux usually doesn't have devel packages, the headers, libraries and documentation are included in the regular package.

-- 
Mike Wey
August 26, 2013
I switched to Arch from Kubuntu a few months ago and I'm never looking back. It's definitely not for everyone since setting up is a pain and some favour stability over having the newest, shiny toys. For me, I wanted a distro that has the latest and greatest that I can make as minimal as possible, with a great package management system. And that's Arch.

Give it a whirl in a VM and judge for yourself. I was worried for a while about leaving the Ubuntu-derived distros and missing out on packages but Arch seems to have everything I want in the official repositories. In the rare case it doesn't, it's in the AUR and easily installed anyway.

To the original poster: thanks and good work!

Atila

> OT:
>
> This might be the final straw that takes me over to Arch.
>
> How are things over on that side of linux? I've been using
> ubuntu/lubuntu/fedora/mint on various machines for years but
> never really tried out the more DIY distros.

August 26, 2013
On Sunday, 25 August 2013 at 23:17:22 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
> On 8/25/13 12:11 PM, Dicebot wrote:
>> Greetings to fellow Arch Linux users - quite a lot of stuff has
>> happened there recently in relation to D and this should sum it
>> up.
>>
>> Some changes may have not been synchronised to all mirrors yet,
>> so please wait a bit before reporting :)
>
> Awesome! Please let me know when this is ready to go on reddit etc.
>
> Andrei

Now ;)
August 26, 2013
On Sunday, 25 August 2013 at 22:35:50 UTC, John Colvin wrote:
> OT:
>
> This might be the final straw that takes me over to Arch.
>
> How are things over on that side of linux? I've been using
> ubuntu/lubuntu/fedora/mint on various machines for years but
> never really tried out the more DIY distros.

I liked it more in pre-systemd epoch, miss that `rc.conf` elegance. It even had ncurses-based installer then! :)

Right now the crucial point for me is AUR / PKGBUILD system (and the reason why I wasn't satisfied with any other distro I have tried). Creating own packages is incredibly easy and simple, as well as sharing them with people. It helps to keep system clean if you build own stuff from sources and allows Arch to be the true bleeding edge distro - even if main repository maintainer are slow or reluctant to include some new shiny program, community will do it in AUR anyway. That was the case initially with D2, btw - it has started in AUR.

Reading manuals / wiki is pretty much mandatory but I don't think it is a major blocker for a programmer, unless he is completely new to Linux :)
August 26, 2013
On Monday, 26 August 2013 at 06:55:50 UTC, Jacob Carlborg wrote:
> I was about to tag dstep for a new release but I wanted to make a proper release as well, providing pre-compiled binaries and so on. Unfortunately I haven't been able to produce a working binary on Linux 32bit, which is weird since it only worked on 32bit before. It segfaults some where inside libclang.
>
> I've moved from Ubuntu to Debian in the hope of better binary compatibility, I'm wondering if that's the reason.

Can you please send me an e-mail with more details about it? Current master works for me on both 32-bit and 64-bit Arch Linux test virtual machines. You may have an issue with libclang - Debian does to really provide better binary compatibility, it provides stability. And that may go bad when you require relatively versions of binaries (3.2+ afair for libclang). One more reason why I prefer bleeding edge for development :)
August 26, 2013
On Monday, 26 August 2013 at 10:52:23 UTC, Mike Wey wrote:
> Usually the actual binary has the fully qualified version number, and libphobos2.so would be included/created by the devel package.

Yes, that does seem to be the case with other packages, I am simply reluctant to make any steps further from upstream until I have carefully studied that domain - and shared library deployment is not something I am very familiar with. It is number one topic on my TODO list.

> Also Archlinux usually doesn't have devel packages, the headers, libraries and documentation are included in the regular package.

It was a subject to hot 30min long debate on clode #archlinux-tu channel, not only my personal decision :) For normal packages difference between dependency environment and development environment is not that important - but for compiled languages it does matter. Pulling in all D development stack for a single application written in D is quite inconvenient for an end user.

Done similarly in gcc - stdlib headers are part of gcc package, but libstdc++ has its own.

`-devel` packages are rare on Arch, but they do exist.
August 26, 2013
P.S.

I have recently found that D has an entry on Arch Wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/D_%28programming_language%29

It is quite out of date now and I am quite busy :) But, hey, it is a wiki, any fellow Arch user can go there and edit it! Volunteers are appreciated ;)
August 26, 2013
On 8/26/13 5:28 AM, Dicebot wrote:
> On Sunday, 25 August 2013 at 23:17:22 UTC, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>> On 8/25/13 12:11 PM, Dicebot wrote:
>>> Greetings to fellow Arch Linux users - quite a lot of stuff has
>>> happened there recently in relation to D and this should sum it
>>> up.
>>>
>>> Some changes may have not been synchronised to all mirrors yet,
>>> so please wait a bit before reporting :)
>>
>> Awesome! Please let me know when this is ready to go on reddit etc.
>>
>> Andrei
>
> Now ;)

Ask, and ye shall receive :o). http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/1l4r01/improved_d_presence_on_arch_linux_latest_releases/

Upvote!!!


Andrei

August 26, 2013
I should've read this more carefully. Updated my system tonight and was missing the phobos imports, took a while to figure out why. For anyone else out there,

TL;DR Install the lib{,g,l}phobos-devel, or one of dlang-dmd, dlang-gdc, dlang-ldc. Or just dlang for the lot.

Atila