sharing code between packages

["IOhannes m zmölnig (Debian/GNU)"]

hi,

i'm seeking advice about how to deal with the following situation:

we are currently maintaining an application-package ("puredata" for
those interested), brought to use by upstream1.
now "some people" (upstream2, unrelated to upstream1) have turned the
application into a library ("libpd"), by adding a thin layer on top of
the application code.
the library consists of a C-library (the application code base + about 7
.c-files and some headers) and bindings for various languages (C++, C#,
ObjC, java, python, younameit).
upstream2 is following the application development closely, but so far
the library-layer has not made it back into the application codebase.
thus the library code includes a full copy of the application code
(obviously omitting a few files during build)

now i'm wondering what's the best way to bring both the application and
the library into Debian.
the main obstacle is obviously the code copy.

i see two options:
- do as if there was no code-copy, and simply package the library

- somehow use the application source package to build the library:

-- e.g. patch (as in /debian/patches/) the application package to
include the library-wrapper (that's a total of 15 .c/.h-files) and make
the application source package provide also a libified version; use the
library package to build the various non-C language bindings

-- OR somehow import the application source package when building the
library package and use the application code rather than it's copy. (i'm
sure there are some ways to do so, e.g. using multiple upstream
tarballs; but i don't know yet how)


any ideas?

fmdars
IOhannes

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