Bug#712402: javahelper: jh_depends should support auto-generating of versioned dependencies

[Markus Koschany]

Package: javahelper
Version: 0.43
Severity: normal

Hello,

I have recently recalled the discussion on debian-java again about
auto-generating versioned dependencies for Java packages [1] and i
thought it would be a good idea to track the status of this bug with a
bug report against javahelper.

I think another way to improve the situation would be to take the
build-dependencies into account. For example i maintain mediathekview that
build depends on libjgoodies-forms-java (>= 1.6) at the moment.

Deriving versioned dependencies from build-deps seems like an easy way
to me to improve the situation.

Mediathekview also provides a manifest file so that jh_depends can
automatically create the needed dependencies.

I believe it would be a huge step forward if javahelper would either
parse the manifest file which could be somehow enhanced by adding an
additional parameter for versioned dependencies, e.g.

Class-Path: /usr/share/java/libjgoodies-java-forms (>= 1.6)

Another option would be to parse Build-Depends or Build-Depends-Indep
and to check for versioned dependencies here and add them to the
package dependencies with jh_depends automatically, if the build-dep
is also present in the manifest file or CLASSPATH. If someone needed
another versioned dependency, he or she could easily override this
behaviour by adding the dependency to the package manually as it is
right now.

Regards,

Markus


[1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-java/2013/04/msg00139.html