Re: Library namespace conflicts
On Fri, Aug 09, 2002 at 08:23:04AM +0100, Patrick Caulfield wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 08, 2002 at 04:53:28PM -0400, Simon Law wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > So here I am trying to package fragroute, by Dug Song. I've
> > done a pretty big overhaul of libevent and fragroute source trees when I
> > notice that the "libdnet" that fragroute depends on is not the DECnet
> > library: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/libs/libdnet.html
> >
> > Instead, it is his _own_ library, available here:
> > http://libdnet.sourceforge.net/
> >
> > Now it looks like OpenBSD already has his version in the ports
> > tree, so it is the canonical name _somewhere_. What do I do? I can't
> > just rename the package, because both libraries provide libdnet.a.
> > Sending patches upstream has elicited no response; so I'm pretty sure
> > that an e-mail asking him to rename his library is going to be equally
> > fruitful. *sigh*
>
> I noticed libdnet.sf.net a while ago and though "oh dear that's going to cause
> a problem".
>
> In my defence I'd like to say I probably have the prior claim to the name
> because a libdnet was in Ultrix in the 1980s :-)
>
> patrick
> DECnet maintainer
I grant you that, this piece of software is a young 'un;
although I'm surprised that this didn't come up any sooner. (Lucky us.)
I don't think either library has more than one piece of software
that currently requires it; but this could change for libdnet.sf.net in
the future, seeing as there is activity on the nmap mailing lists.
Since you've had the name for such a long time, I'd like to defer
judgement to you. What do you think is a reasonable way to handle this?
Rename one of the libraries and tweak code that depends on it? Rename
one of the libraries and make them both conflict with each other?
Provide libdnet.sf.net in fragroute and link statically?
Simon
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