Bug#918112: openfoam should not massively pollute /usr/{bin, lib} namespaces

[littlejohn75 at laposte.net]

Package: openfoam
Version: 4.1+dfsg1-2pre~6.gbpa01bff
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

The libopenfoam package drops 108 libraries (without sonames) in /usr/lib and 
the openfoam package installs 226 programs in /usr/bin.
Moreover following libraries are installed
/usr/lib/openmpi-system/libPstream.so
/usr/lib/openmpi-system/libptscotchDecomp.so
/usr/lib/dummy/libMGridGen.so
/usr/lib/dummy/libPstream.so
/usr/lib/dummy/libmetisDecomp.so
/usr/lib/dummy/libptscotchDecomp.so

In the repository https://salsa.debian.org/littlejohn75-guest/openfoam
you will find patches that remove those extraneous libraries. See bug number
 917985: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=917985.

Among the numerous binaries installed by the packages, there are a number of
generic names which may conflict with names from other packages. (see annex )
For example, if you install openfoam (and libopenfoam dependancy ) you cannot 
easily develop a scientific sofware with  'ODE' 'forces', 'engine' or 'lagrangian'
libraries. And no other package can provide a 'noise', 'objToVTK', 'pdfPlot' or
'postProcess' command.
In the aforementioned repository, libaries are installed in /usr/lib/OpenFOAM-4.1/lib
and programs in /usr/lib/OpenFOAM-4.1/bin  so that more than a version of openfoam
are coinstallable.  Moreover, this allows to install the software on only one
system in a cluster of machines, and to automount the /usr/lib/OpenFOAM-4.1
directory on the other systems of the cluster.
WARNING: mainterner scripts are not updated in the littlejohn75-guest repo
as I do not have experience with this. Upgrade of an installed package can be
very tricky.

The Debian openfoam package as provided is useless for administrators of high
performance compute systems with more than a few machines in the cluster.
And with only a few systems, the impossibility to install more than a version
of the software is a major hindrance.

For all these reasons, please install in /usr/lib/PREFIX-VERS/{bin,lib}
Stop the /usr/{bin,lib} namespace pollution by specialized leaf package !

Annex  non exhaustive list of binaries which may conflict with other packages
_____________________________________________________________________________
/usr/bin/attachMesh
/usr/bin/changeDictionary
/usr/bin/checkMesh
/usr/bin/createPatch
/usr/bin/extrude2DMesh
/usr/bin/extrudeMesh
/usr/bin/mirrorMesh
/usr/bin/modifyMesh
/usr/bin/moveMesh
/usr/bin/noise
/usr/bin/objToVTK
/usr/bin/patchSummary
/usr/bin/pdfPlot
/usr/bin/postChannel
/usr/bin/postProcess
/usr/bin/refineMesh
/usr/bin/refinementLevel
/usr/bin/removeFaces
/usr/bin/rotateMesh
/usr/bin/selectCells
/usr/bin/setFields
/usr/bin/setsToZones
/usr/bin/splitCells
/usr/bin/splitMesh
/usr/bin/streamFunction
/usr/bin/subsetMesh
/usr/bin/surfaceAdd
/usr/bin/surfaceCheck
/usr/bin/surfaceClean
/usr/bin/surfaceFind
/usr/bin/surfaceInertia
/usr/bin/surfaceOrient
/usr/bin/surfaceSubset
/usr/bin/temporalInterpolate
/usr/bin/topoSet
/usr/bin/wdot

/usr/lib/libODE.so
/usr/lib/libconversion.so
/usr/lib/libdecompose.so
/usr/lib/libengine.so
/usr/lib/libextrude2DMesh.so
/usr/lib/libextrudeModel.so
/usr/lib/libfileFormats.so
/usr/lib/libfiniteVolume.so
/usr/lib/libforces.so
/usr/lib/liblagrangian.so
/usr/lib/libliquidProperties.so
/usr/lib/libmeshTools.so
/usr/lib/libmolecule.so
/usr/lib/libpotential.so
/usr/lib/libreconstruct.so
/usr/lib/libregionModels.so
/usr/lib/libsampling.so
/usr/lib/libsolidProperties.so
/usr/lib/libsurfMesh.so
/usr/lib/libturbulenceModels.so


System Information:
Debian Release: 9.6
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-8-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=fr_FR.utf8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=fr_FR.utf
8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages openfoam depends on:
ii  libc6            2.24-11+deb9u3
ii  libgcc1          1:6.3.0-18+deb9u1
ii  libopenfoam      4.1+dfsg1-2pre~6.gbpa01bff
ii  libreadline7     7.0-3
ii  libstdc++6       6.3.0-18+deb9u1
ii  mpi-default-bin  1.8

Versions of packages openfoam recommends:
pn  openfoam-examples  <none>

openfoam suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information

Happy new year to the Debian Science Team !

Cordialement,
Regards,
Mit freundlichen Grüßen,
مع  تحياتي الخالصة  
---
F. Petitjean
Ingénieur civil du Génie Maritime.
littlejohn75 at laposte.net

« Il semble que la perfection soit atteinte, non quand il n'y a
  plus rien à ajouter mais quand il n'y a plus rien à retrancher »
      Saint-Exupéry -Terre des hommes , chapitre III , L'avion.