Re: Why does libgeotiff-dev depend on libtiff5-dev ?
"Francesco P. Lovergine" <frankie@debian.org> wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 15, 2013 at 10:00:26PM +0100, Alastair McKinstry wrote:
>> I'm unfamiliar with the history of libtiff4 / tiff5, but libgd-dev
>> depends on libtiff-dev ;
>> can anyone answer:
>> (1) why does libgeotiff-dev depend on libtiff5-dev?
>
> Because it needs a working bigtiff support, which is only provided by libtiff5
>
>> (2) why libtiff5-dev not provide the virtual libtiff-dev?
>>
>
> Because in wheezy the tiff maintainer would not accept the migration to the
> current library for all rdeps, which is understandable.
The release team would not let me, which is also understandable.
> The 5 flavor is of primary interest for gis-related programs.
> Something that definitevely needs to be managed for jessie, because
> sometimes one could need to link gis-related and other libraries. To
> support that decision let me remember all of you that tiff5 is
> compatible at source level with tiff4.
Please instead build-depend on libtiff5-alt-dev and use pkg-config to
find libtiff. Then you will be all set for the transition when it
occurs. For additional details, please see README.Debian in the tiff
package and
<http://lists.debian.org/debian-release/2013/05/msg00127.html>.
The release team has not yet found the time to reply to my message of
May 6 on when they will be ready to think about the tiff transition or
whether my plans for the transition are okay. (It is not my intention
to be critical of the release team. They do a great job and are
volunteers with limited time just like the rest of us.) In the mean
time, we will continue to have issues like this popping up as people
stumble over the current confusion. If I had known over a year ago when
I put the first version of libtiff5-dev into debian that it was going to
be this long before the transition could happen, I would have not made a
libtiff5-dev and instead only made a libtiff5-alt-dev, but it's too late
for that now, I'm afraid. I suppose I could make libtiff5-dev an alias
for libtiff5-alt-dev, but that would break any packages that aren't
using pkg-config to find -ltiff.
Please note that if you build depend on libtiff5-alt-dev, you will get a
lintian error about use of a runpath. This is harmless as the runpath
points to a location where there will never be a copy of the library. I
am going to try to resolve this.
Maybe I will ask the release team if I should make libtiff5-dev an alias
to libtiff5-alt-dev, assuming they do not reply to that suggestion from
this message.
--
Jay Berkenbilt <qjb@debian.org>
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