Re: Spliting packages between pkg and pkg-data

[Ricardo Mones <mones@aic.uniovi.es>]

On Sun, 20 Nov 2005 12:13:48 +0100
Bill Allombert <allomber@math.u-bordeaux.fr> wrote:

> Hello Debian developers,
> 
> When doing research about circular-deps, I looked at a lot of packages
> that are split between a binary package and a data package. This is a
> good thing since this reduce the total siez of the archive, however
> there are simple rules that should be followed:
> 
> 1) Make sure pkg-data is actually arch: all.
> 
> 2) Name it in a way that make the relationship obvious: For example,
>    if the upstream name is 'foo', name the binary package 'foo' and the
>    data package 'foo-data'.  
> 
> 3) Keep the files that 'signal' executables in the same package than the
>    executable (e.g. menu file, program manpage).
> 
> 4) Do not put symlinks in data packages that point to files in the binary
>    package. This do not really save space and avoid dandling symlinks
>    when the binary package is not installed.
> 
> 5) Of course move /usr/share/pkg to pkg-data.
> 
> 6) Do not make pkg-data to Depends on pkg.
> 
> 7) Try to do it correctly the first time: if you move file between
>    pkg and pkg-data, you will need to use Replaces:
> 
> Please check your packages follow these rules, and if not, do not forget
> about rule 7.

  I'd suggest to add this to the best practices for debian/control in
developers' reference. What do you think?
-- 
  Ricardo Mones 
  ~
  Don't take the name of root in vain.          /usr/src/linux/README