[Pkg-crosswire-devel] Module packaging, distribution, and management

[Norbert Bollow]

Eeli Kaikkonen <eekaikko at mail.student.oulu.fi> wrote:

> We (meaning several application developers) have together seen that
> a distro package management isn't appropriate for the modules.

I'll agree immediately that the module management system that you're
providing is a good thing and it should _not_ be _replaced_ by using
a particular distro's package management instead.

But if the system is incompatible with the idea of distributing
some of the modules via the distro's package management system, that
is in my eyes a pretty severe shortcoming / bug of the system as it
is currently implemented, and we should discuss (not necessarily
right now, since there are currently more urgent tasks) how this
incompatibility can be fixed.

IMO it has been a very broadly accepted standard for a long time that
stuff which is in /usr but not in /usr/local is subject to management
by the distro's package management system, and I would consider it a
bug whenever a program does not respect this principle in its default
configuration.

One way of allowing modules to be both in /usr/share/sword and in
~/.sword --while making this transparent to programs which use
libsword-- is that at startup libsword could check if there are new
modules in /usr/share/sword (i.e. if any modules have been placed
there since the user last used libsword) and if yes, create symlinks
to them from ~/.sword .  If the user chooses to "remove the module"
via libsword, that would remove just the symlink, without any need for
root privilges, and no risk of breaking the distro's package
management.

> No, not commonly. But it's a very good solution for shared data. The
> admin can start GnomeSword as root and install modules for all users.
> Then he can close GnomeSword.

That does not sound like a good solution for admins who are
responsible for multiple machines...

> The software has to work as identically as possible on Debian,
> Fedora, Windows and Mac.

Yes, I agree.

However I also believe that from the admin's perspective, the various
programs should adhere to well-established principles like "the
program is not fundamentally incompatible with my distro's package
management system", with as few app-specific quirks as possible.

Blessings and greetings,
Norbert