libc4 (Was: Re: New source format repackaging: Status.)

[Behan Webster <behanw@verisim.com>]

> > libc4                     extra     libs        (orphaned)
> > libc4-dev                 extra     devel       (orphaned)
<snip>
> > those 4 are in still in the old package format, but I don't think these
> > packages are very usefull anymore, and can be safely dropped unless someone
> > really wants to maintain them.
> 
> I quite agree.  I was going to suggest that 1.3 be the last release
> to have the a.out development tools and libraries included, so we
> can not only retire libc4[-dev], but the a.out binutils and gcc as
> well.  As maintainer of both those packages, I would like to formally
> note that building the a.out compatability stuff is a real pain.
> 

I periodically check my system for a.out packages so that I know when
I can get rid of libc4 from my system (I've included the script below
if people are interested). With this talk of getting rid of libc4, I'm
a little concerned about those packages that still need this (a.out)
library.  The following is a list of (as far as I know, up-to-date as
of Jan 27) packages installed on my Debian box that still contain a.out
executables or libraries:

abuse		(executables under /usr/lib/games/abuse)
acm		(executables under /usr/games)
aout-svgalib
ibcs		(/usr/lib/x286emul/x286emul)
libc4
nlsutils	(dspcat, dspmsg, gencat, locale, localedef, xtract)
rsynth		(/usr/bin/say)
ucbmpeg_play	(/usr/bin/mpeg_play)
xcompat		(libraries under /usr/X11R5/lib and /usr/X11R6/lib/i486-linuxaout)

Of course aout-svgalib, libc4, and xcompat are obviously a.out.  8)

Can we make sure that packages like this are recompiled or removed before
libc4 is pulled from the distribution?

Thanks,

Behan

-- 
Behan Webster     mailto:behanw@verisim.com
(613) 224-7547    http://www.verisim.com/


#!/bin/sh
#
# findaout - Find a.out executables and libraries on a Debian system
#
# Written by: Behan Webster <behanw@verisim.com>
#

FILE=$HOME/aout.txt
DIRS="/ -xdev"

if [ $# -eq 1 ] ; then
    FILE=$1
elif [ $# -gt 1 ] ; then
    echo "Usage: `basename $0` [filename]"
    exit 1
fi

if [ -f $FILE ] ; then
    echo "Saving old $FILE files..."
    savelog -c 8 -m 644 $FILE >/dev/null
fi

echo "Putting list of a.out packages in $FILE..."
(
    (
        nice -n +20 find $DIRS -type f -perm +111 | xargs file
    ) | egrep 'Linux/i386.*MAGIC' | cut -d: -f1 | xargs dpkg -S
) | cut -d: -f1 | sort -u > $FILE

echo "Done."


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