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Re: Node.js and it's future in debian



* Steve Langasek [2012-05-04 09:49 -0700]:
> On Fri, May 04, 2012 at 08:38:43AM -0700, Russ Allbery wrote:
> > Raphael's approach of creating a compatibility symlink in postinst
> > during upgrades but not for new installs sounds better to me the
> > more I think about it, since that addresses the major concern of
> > breaking someone's system during an upgrade.  ...

If nodejs is installed later because an other package depends on it or
recommends it, this symlink would be overwritten by dpkg without any
prior notice.

Instead of creating a non-packaged symlink, it could be packaged.  For
example, the binary package node could be renamed to axnode and a new
binary package node would contain this compatibility symlink,
README.Debian and NEWS.Debian and depend on axnode.

* Raphael Hertzog wrote:
> For new installs, as opposed to upgrades, you obviously don't install
> the compatibility symlink.

New installs should then install the axnode package, but upgrades would
get this compatibility symlink from the node package.

On upgraded node systems, possibly existing scripts that use the old
executable name would need to be adapted before nodejs could be
installed if both, axnode and nodejs, would be needed.  A warning from
apt (removed package: node) would remind the admin of this.

The policy does not mention compatibility packages intended for upgraded
systems and during migration, so this would violate policy as the other
conflicts would do.  The reasons why a conflict between the ham radio
node package and nodejs is not allowed do not apply to a conflict
against compatibility packages, though.


Carsten


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