Github user markgrover commented on the pull request: https://github.com/apache/spark/pull/78#issuecomment-36814000 Sure, we use that target for integrating Spark into the Apache Bigtop distribution. In particular, we build a .tar.gz using the maven-assembly-plugin and it contains all the spark jars and dependencies: https://github.com/apache/bigtop/blob/master/bigtop-packages/src/common/spark/do-component-build#L35 We then take this tarball distribution and use it in building our rpm/deb packages: https://github.com/apache/bigtop/blob/master/bigtop-packages/src/common/spark/install_spark.sh#L134 The goal of that target is to not include any hadoop jars though since those are provided by Bigtop. The bug this PR fixes is that the distribution wasn't including the right assembly jar, so it makes it include the correct assembly uber jar (which in itself contains hadoop jars but that's what SPARK-1064 will fix). I know of make-distribution.sh but haven't looked much into it since it uses sbt. I can't speak for the whole Bigtop project here but I think most of us integrators are more experienced with maven and therefore prefer it due to the knowledge base and community. Hope that helps and thank you reviewing!
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