[DebianGIS-dev] Bug#508340: Plugin location has become hard to detect

[Enrico Zini]

Package: gdal
Version: 1.5.1-4
Severity: normal

Hello,

thanks for packaging gdal.

The 1.5.1-4 upload has introduced this change:

  * [PATCH] gdalpaths.dpatch added to use the same plugins directory
    used currently in gdal-grass. It would require a much better approach
    upstream. See #2371 upstream bug. Also changed path for share dir path
    to /usr/share/gdal15.
    (closes: #481263)

Now I'm trying to write autotools support to install a GDAL plugin into
a system. Upstream documents the use of /usr/lib/gdalplugins, but after
1.5.1-4, Debian has diverged from that.  Now, I can only think of three
ways to find out whether I should install to /usr/lib/gdalplugins or
/usr/lib/gdal15plugins:

 1. Test for which of the two directories exists.
 2. Mess around with dpkg, to see if I am in Debian and what version of
    gdal is currently installed.
 3. Use /usr/lib/gdalplugins unless overridden by a new ./configure
    option (and therefore, leave it up to the user or the .deb
    packager)

So, basically Debian has now diverged from upstream in a nonstandard
way, that requires all plugin install systems to have custom install
procedures especially for Debian.

Upstream has updated bug #2371 about this problem.


Ciao,

Enrico

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

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