[debian-mysql] About packages that depend on mysql-* / mariadb / virtual-mysql-*

[Otto Kekäläinen]

Hello!

2016-03-23 23:44 GMT+02:00 Emilio Pozuelo Monfort <pochu at debian.org>:
> On 23/02/16 12:43, Otto Kekäläinen wrote:
>> Hello release team!
>>
>> The meeting minutes from last month gave me the impression that you
>> will eventually ask me to do something regarding MySQL/MariaDB:
>> http://meetbot.debian.net/debian-release/2016/debian-release.2016-01-27-18.59.html
>>
>> "ACTION: jmw will mail release team and include pkg-mysql-maint about
>> moving to mariadb dependencies"
>>
>> I just wanted to let you know, that I am available to help you with
>> whatever you intend to request. So far I haven't though seen any
>> communication from the release team regarding this topic.
>>
>> What is the status?
>
> We decided to make mariadb the default provider. That would mean having mariadb
> as the default alternative in packages relationships, or have mariadb provide
> something à la default-mta. We'd also need a solution for libmysqlclient, unless
> that could be (eventually) split off mysql in case that came to be necessary.
>
> I suggest we make a plan for this, then send it to debian-devel@ before the MBF
> happens.
>
> Can you suggest a plan to make the necessary changes?

Roger, I'll think about it.

At the moment I think the easiest and solution would just to add to
lintian a rule that packages should depend on 'mariadb-client |
virtual-mysql-client' with mariadb first and thus default. Many
packages already do this and it would require least effort and
coordination to implement. Creating a new metapackage and having
everybody depend in it does not initially sound like a very compelling
idea as it would require a lot of coordination work and planning to be
backwards compatible with current 'virtual-mysql-*' policy. This
however requires some thought.

I don't think it is feasible to split out libmysqliclient into a
separate source package as it is build from the mysql sources. We
should maybe just start shipping libmariadbclient from the mariadb
source package now as we have permission to do so, and later on stop
providing the same package and files from the mysql source package.

We also need to think about how to produce the mysql-common package.
It might make sense to split out into a separate source package, as
planned by Andreas Beckmann for since last summer. Andreas, still
planning to do this?

- Otto