Bug#286656: marked as done (java-package: Could be merged with alien?)

Debian Bug Tracking System owner@bugs.debian.org
Mon Jan 3 12:53:02 2005


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and subject line java-package: Could be merged with alien?
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From: Andrew Ferrier <andrew@new-destiny.co.uk>
To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>
Subject: java-package: Could be merged with alien?
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Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 10:42:19 +0000
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Package: java-package
Version: 0.17
Severity: wishlist

java-package is a very useful tool. However, what it does seems to be very 
similar to alien, except in a specific domain (i.e. Java). Would it not be of 
benefit to both projects to merge the knowledge of make-jpkg into alien? Just 
a suggestion.

I've copied the alien maintainer on this bug report.

Thanks,
Andrew.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (900, 'testing'), (800, 'unstable'), (50, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.7
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)

Versions of packages java-package depends on:
ii  debhelper                     4.2.24     helper programs for debian/rules

-- no debconf information

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>From jeroen@wolffelaar.nl Mon Jan 03 11:39:05 2005
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Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2005 20:39:04 +0100
To: Andrew Ferrier <andrew@new-destiny.co.uk>
Cc: Debian Bug Tracking System <286656-done@bugs.debian.org>
Subject: Re: java-package: Could be merged with alien?
Message-ID: <20050103193904.GA29355@wolffelaar.nl>
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From: Jeroen van Wolffelaar <jeroen@wolffelaar.nl>
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On Tue, Dec 21, 2004 at 10:42:19AM +0000, Andrew Ferrier wrote:
> java-package is a very useful tool. However, what it does seems to be
> very similar to alien, except in a specific domain (i.e. Java). Would
> it not be of benefit to both projects to merge the knowledge of
> make-jpkg into alien? Just a suggestion.

I understand your reasoning, however, for a few reasons this is
unfortuantely not possible:

alien is a generic conversion tool for package formats, but this package
needs extra logic: the packages are not really standard, but include
some random scripts by sun, the version numbers are not sequential
according to Debian policy, and most importantly, java-package adds
packaging 'glue' so that the generated packages are like debian
packages, with all the integration in browsers etc. It also has a
dependency relationship with a separate support package so that one
notices while using apt or similar that one's java package is outdated
and a newer one is available.

I hope this sufficiently explains why your suggestion is impossible to
implement.

Thanks for thinking with us!

--Jeroen
 
-- 
Jeroen van Wolffelaar
jeroen@wolffelaar.nl
http://jeroen.A-Eskwadraat.nl