Re: libgeos++-dev intentionally broken
Hi,
On Mon, 12 Sept 2022 at 09:02, Enrico Zini <enrico@enricozini.org> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> GEOS upstream[1] explicitly offers a C++ API, with no API stability
> across different versions, and a C API, as a stable wrapper to the C++
> API with API and API stability guarantees.
>
> The Debian libgeos++-dev package has intentionally stopped[2] shipping
> some include files that are needed to build programs with the C++ API,
> stating:
>
> > The files are explicitly removed because the C++ API should not be used
> > by others.
> >
> > Having to rebuild rdeps for every upstream release is unacceptable.
>
> This[3] is the corresponding issue in Ubuntu.
>
> I do understand that Debian is not a good match for a C++ library that
> does not make API and ABI stability guarantees, but the current solution
> declares that the package exists but breaks builds, not just of Debian
> packages using it, but also of software not shipped in Debian[4].
>
> I wonder if there can be a better way of stating lack of support for
> packages in Debian built using the C++ API, than the current situation
> of shipping a broken package. Even now having libgeos++-dev in Debian,
> shipping only the C API, would be better than a broken version.
>
> Ideas for alternative approaches, that would still honor the desire of
> the maintainer of not having to deal with the ripple effects of API/ABI
> changes?
There is no other option I know of. In this case not shipping the C++
headers is the right thing to do, in my point of view.
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