log4shib and pkg-config

[Cantor, Scott]

> I published my current patch queue for xmltooling at
> https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/pkg-
> shibboleth/xmltooling.git/log/?h=patch-queue/debian/experimental
> (an ephemeral branch just providing a preview).

If you get something final done, please attach it in Jira or create a new issue if there's nothing there already.

> I tried to use mainstream solutions and hope that any problems arising
> on your supported platforms (for example PKG_INSTALLDIR macro being
> unavailable in pkg-config older than 0.27) will be easily fixable.

Well, easily fixable basically means "this gets used if it can be, but there has to be fallback to what was there before". One of the reasons for not doing these changes is that it just adds another layer to what's there but nothing can ever get removed. Sorry to say, but as long as Solaris support is required, almost nothing can be the "only" solution, because there is no way to count on anything there due to the variability.

> I killed backwards compatibility in this test run, but that mainly
> matters for xml-security-c, because xmltooling, opensaml2 and
> shibboleth-sp2 are often released in lockstep and log4shib already
> provides a usable pkg-config file.  A distribution can make a
> coordinated transition, but you as upstream are in a different position.
> How do you think this could work out?

It only works if it works across every platform and version. There is no way to "transition" to anything, other than maybe years down the road. If this is removing the existing tests, I would probably not take it as a patch, because it would be a large amount of work for me to add this myself but not lose the existing tests.

-- Scott