Re: Attention: /usr/share/file/magic{,.mime} removal

["Bernhard R. Link" <brlink@debian.org>]

* Daniel Baumann <daniel@debian.org> [080503 18:39]:
> Bernhard R. Link wrote:
> >> [0] they *could* change format suddenly, only the library and its
> >>     bindings are safe.
> > 
> > And where is this documented? (It has a documentation for the format, so
> > I guess if that was supposed to be "writing" only, that was a canonical
> > place to state it).
> 
> what do you mean, documentation about the format, documentation about
> the recent change, or documentation about to not modify
> /usr/share/file/magic* directly?

I mean there is no documentation that the file is not to be used directly,
rather documentation about this file in a way suggesting it is supposed
to be a public interface. (comparing this to the documentation of the
libmagic library, the library looks more like a private interface in
comparision)

> > Thanks for the warning and the compaitibility wrapper. But please also
> > advertise that a bit wider. Just a mail to debian-devel is hardly enough
> > when breaking an advertised interface.
>
> err, this is a first attention mail approximately 4 to 6 month before
> lenny release..

For upstream changes 4 to 6 months is a very short time (especially if
it is not simple changes, but you are requesting to replace whole
subsystems with some library, which will most likely mean to also have
to get upstream changes in some prior unused library).

Hochachtungsvoll,
	Bernhard R. Link