Re: Deprecation of *-gcj packages
On 2013-04-12 13:41, Sylvestre Ledru wrote:
> Hello,
>
Hey,
> Maybe I am missing a point but I have the feeling that the -gcj packages
> are now a bit useless.
> gcj does not seem a very active project [1] and my perception is that
> not many people are using gcj packages instead of the "java package".
>
>From a user PoV you are right, -gcj has lost a lot of its value.
I believe they are only used on ports where OpenJDK is not available
(kfreebsd+hurd atm but likely to be only mips* + hurd in Jessie) or for
bootstraping OpenJDK itself.
Allegedly the build times of (e.g.) LibreOffice relies quite a bit on
a couple of -gcj packages for keeping the build times down (on
non-OpenJDK architectures).
> [...]
>
> So, I would like to suggest two things:
> 1) Update the Java policy to forbid the creation of gcj packages
>
Pretty much already done. I believe that change was ratified in 2010.
http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/java-policy/x145.html
> 2) Fill bugs on the following packages to ask their removals.
> [...]
>
> Any opinions ?
>
> Thanks,
> Sylvestre
> [1] http://gcc.gnu.org/java/ => last news is 2009.
>
I am okay with removing unused -gcj packages - i.e. ones that are not
"needed" (see above on what I mean with that). For things that are
still in use for bootstraping/building "huge" packages, I am inclined to
leave them around for now.
~Niels
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