[Pkg-kde-extras] Bug#963961: Bug#963961: Please backport exiv2

[Pino Toscano]

Ciao Enrico,

In data lunedì 29 giugno 2020 12:05:13 CEST, Enrico Zini ha scritto:
> Package: exiv2
> Version: 0.27.2-8
> Severity: wishlist
> 
> Hello,
> 
> thank you for maintaining exiv2.
> 
> exiv2 in testing adds support for the webp image format, not supported
> in stable.
> 
> I tried building exiv2 with the build-deps from stable, and it builds
> and works, with the attached .symbols patch.
> 
> Could you please backport exiv2?

There are two problems in this case, one smaller and two bigger.

The smaller problem is that we don't have the bandwidth needed to
maintain packages in -backports, so it would require somebody else to
step it and maintain the -backports branch.

The bigger problem #1 is that exiv2 breaks ABI (and SONAME) for each
stable series; you can easily see the package in unstable is
libexiv2-27 for version 0.27.x, and the same applies to older versions.
So even a plain backport won't be used automatically, as packages are
linked to the SONAME of the libexiv2 in stable.

The bigger problem #2 is that the API of libexiv2 is not that stable
and usually changes, requiring fixes and adaptations in packages.
Based on what I remember wrt the exiv2 update to 0.27, my wild guess
is at least 1/3, if not even 1/2 or more, of the packages in stable
that use exiv2 are not compatible with the newer exiv2.

So sorry to bring the bad news: IMHO this is not doable, and it would
require a lot of work.

-- 
Pino Toscano
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