Re: Akka - Arabic Console package
On Mon, Feb 11, 2002 at 10:04:29PM -0600, Moe Elzubeir wrote:
> [warning: this is my first post!]
>
> I am packaging the software package 'Akka', which is an Arabic console
> for linux (http://www.arabeyes.org/projects/akka.php). I have a couple
> of questions though:
>
> 1. In the New Maintainer's Guide, it explicitly says not to put anything
> on */sbin..
Read on, to the next paragraph in the New Maintainer's Guide. What it says
is that you should not choose such a package for your first package.
> however, Akka is a rather unique piece of software and does
> some very low-level manipulation (filtering out I/O from the terminal to
> display Arabic). It is our (mine, and the upstream) opinion that it
> should go into /sbin. If that is not acceptable, what is the second-best
> choice?
/sbin is not a matter of opinion; the FHS specifies criteria to be used in
making this decision, and Debian Policy mandates conformance to the FHS.
<quote>
3.10 /sbin : System binaries (binaries once kept in /etc)
[...]
Deciding what things go into "sbin" directories is simple: If a
normal (not a system administrator) user will ever run it directly, then it
should be placed in one of the "bin" directories.
</quote>
So if it is used by non-root users, it belongs in a /bin directory. Unless
the tools are needed very early in the boot process, they should go in
/usr/bin.
> 2. Akka comes with a modified us-latin1.map and its own arabic.map, along
> with a bunch of other keymaps (for ibook, pc, etc.). I initially decided
> to put it in /usr/share/keymaps/akka/, since we consider Akka to be its
> own architecture.
The keymaps for specific architectures should probably go under the
directories for those architectures, but you should coordinate with the
console-data maintainer. Whoever told you to do that was giving good
advice.
> Someone pointed out that I should coordinate with the maintainer of
> /usr/share/keymaps first, but I am not sure who that is. So, if you are
> that person, or someone who knows who they are, please let me know if that
> could be problematic.
console-data@packages.debian.org, or Yann Dirson <dirson@debian.org>
--
- mdz
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