[Debian GNUstep maintainers] Re: pre-announce: GNUstep library transition in Debian

[Steve Langasek]

Hi Hubert,

On Sun, Aug 20, 2006 at 01:09:38AM -0600, Hubert Chan wrote:

> There will be a new GNUstep library release coming up, which will break
> binary compatibility with the GNUstep libraries currently in Debian.
> (The versions currently in Debian are one release old, and the current
> GNUstep release already breaks binary compatibility with what is
> currently in Debian.)  Since the new release adds many new features, we
> would like to get it into etch if possible.  Since the general freeze
> for etch is only a couple of months away, that means that if we want to
> make it happen, we'll have to make a very, very smooth library
> transition.

> So here's what needs to happen:

> If you maintain a package that uses the GNUstep libraries, you will need
> to change your build-depends.  Instead of build-depending on
> libgnustep-gui0.10-dev, you should build-depend on libgnustep-gui-dev,
> and instead of libgnustep-base1.11-dev, you should build-depend on
> libgnustep-base-dev.  These will be the names of the new -dev packages
> for the new GNUstep libraries, which will enable us to do smoother
> transitions later on by allowing us to do binNMUs.  (And ftpmaster seems
> to prefer those names.)  The current -dev packages already provide those
> names, so it should even be safe to upload packages with the new
> build-depends, if you were already planning on doing an upload soon.  So
> there's no reason to delay making the change.  You can do it right away,
> and should do it as soon as possible.  This should be the only change
> that you should need to make to your packages.

While the ftp team is going to prefer -dev package names that don't include
ABI versions in them, the underlying *reason* for that preference is that
changing -dev package names unnecessarily generates busy work -- not just
for the ftp team, but also for the release team and for maintainers of
packages that build-depend on those -dev packages.

So while changing the -dev package names to libgnustep-gui-dev and
libgnustep-base-dev sounds like a good idea to me, I think it would also be
a very good idea to make these packages Provide: libgnustep-gui0.10-dev and
libgnustep-base1.11-dev during this transition just as the previous packages
Provide:d the new names.  This would immediately enable us to do binNMUs for
any gnustep packages whose maintainers don't have time to change around
their build-dependencies before the freeze while still letting you get your
lib transition in for etch.

Cheers,
-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
vorlon at debian.org                                   http://www.debian.org/