On Wed, 2008-04-16 at 19:15 +0200, Goswin von Brederlow wrote: > Gabor Gombas <gombasg@sztaki.hu> writes: > > > On Wed, Apr 16, 2008 at 11:23:51AM +0100, Neil Williams wrote: > > > >> What about these clauses as a Policy amendment? > >> > >> 1. If a library *only supports the retrieval of FOO_LIBS and / or > >> FOO_CFLAGS by the use of pkg-config*, pkg-config becomes part of the API > >> of that library and the -dev package of that library must depend on > >> pkg-config. The mere presence of a .pc file in the -dev package of the > >> library does *not* mean that only pkg-config is supported. e.g. where a > >> library requires the use of an m4 macro that involves calling > >> pkg-config, this would require the -dev package to depend on pkg-config > >> but if a library provides a .pc file but also supports alternative > >> method(s), the -dev package does not need to depend on pkg-config. > >> > >> 2. If a source package uses libraries that package a .pc but where all > >> the libraries also support other methods of obtaining the relevant data, > >> and the source package requires the use of pkg-config despite those > >> other methods being available, then that choice by the source package > >> upstream must result in a Build-Depends on pkg-config in the source > >> package. > >> > >> Is that suitable as a Policy clause? (probably needs a few tweaks for > >> clarity and examples in clause 1). > > > > Wow, that's awfully complicated. This is much more straightforward: > > > > "If a package wants to call /usr/bin/foo during build and fails > > to build properly if /usr/bin/foo is not present, then the > > package MUST Build-Depend: on some other package providing > > /usr/bin/foo". > > > > And by this definition, it is the package _invoking_ pkg-config that > > should Build-Depend on it, not the package that happens to ship a .pc > > file. > > > > Gabor > > You are missing the point. > > What if the library says "You must call /usr/bin/foo during build"? > The libarry does not use foo, only the user, so no depends? The library -dev package includes the binary - if that binary needs other binaries to run, the package containing the binary must depend on those packages. So if /usr/bin/foo is actually a script that calls pkg-config, the -dev package containing /usr/bin/foo must depend on pkg-config. However, unless the application linking against the library does not use pkg-config for any other libraries that it needs, the application will be running pkg-config during the ./configure script so the application will need to Build-Depend on pkg-config as well. > Or idoes forcing users to use foo make foo part of the API and hence > the library should depend on it? Exactly - it does, IMHO. That is why I suggested the more complex wording, albeit still based on the "you run it, you depend on it" mantra. -- Neil Williams <codehelp@debian.org>
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