Bug 331331 (binaries-in-git) – [Tracker] Binary files in gentoo repository

• Product: Quality Assurance
• Status: RESOLVED FIXED

[Description Samuli Suominen (RETIRED) 2010-08-05 15:39:36 UTC]

cvs doesn't handle binary files for log well, that's why it has always been "forbidden" to commit binary files in gentoo-x86

if your package is using tarball in files/, just upload it to gentoo mirrors with unique name.

if your package is using e.g. PNG file in files/ directory, you can convert it to .xpm by using imagemagick's convert (xpm is not a binary format, unlike png) or you can upload it to mirrors as well.

[Comment 1 Samuli Suominen (RETIRED) 2011-04-04 12:24:58 UTC]

This bug is still open because gentoo-x86 is still full of .png (binary image format) files.

TODO: Need to do a `find` and open bugs to maintainers.

[Comment 2 Samuli Suominen (RETIRED) 2011-06-09 16:20:25 UTC]

To put some official context to this bug:

http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/handbook/handbook.xml?part=2&chap=1

"Also, you should not add binary (non-ASCII) files to the Portage CVS tree."

[Comment 3 Matt Turner 2011-06-28 02:50:47 UTC]

I wrote a script that now runs daily on qa-reports.gentoo.org [1] that finds binary and empty files in portage. Almost all have open bugs now.

[1] http://qa-reports.gentoo.org/output/find-binary-files.txt

[Comment 4 Ulrich Müller 2015-06-14 21:40:56 UTC]

(In reply to Samuli Suominen from comment #2)
> To put some official context to this bug:
> 
> http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/handbook/handbook.xml?part=2&chap=1

Updated URLs for policy references:

https://devmanual.gentoo.org/ebuild-maintenance/index.html#what-%28not%29-to-put-in-the-portage-tree

"Things that do *not* belong in the tree: [...] – Non-text files"

https://devmanual.gentoo.org/general-concepts/tree/index.html#what-belongs-in-the-tree%3F

"Also, you should not add binary (non-ASCII) files to the Portage CVS tree."