Re: Request for review: xz-utils package description

[Ben Finney <ben+debian@benfinney.id.au>]

Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com> writes:

> On one hand, there is the algorithm, which has the characteristics
> described, and on the other hand, there are the file formats it
> manipulates. Trying to fix that does not seem to improve matters,
> though.
>
> 	XZ is the successor to the LZMA compression format.  Both use
> 	the Lempel-Ziv/Markov-chain Algorithm, which is characterized
> 	by memory-hungry but powerful compression (often better than
> 	bzip2) and fast, easy decompression.
>
> Strictly speaking, the XZ format does not use LZMA1, so this is more
> misleading than the previous formulation.

Well, that's new in this discussion. What's LZMA1, and how is it
different from LZMA?

> > I think the synopses can be improved slightly. Since XZ is a
> > “compression format”, this could work:
> > 
> >     Package: liblzma0
> >     Description: XZ (and LZMA) compression format – runtime library
> > 
> >     Package: xz-utils
> >     Description: XZ (and LZMA) compression format – command-line utilities
> >     
> >     Package: liblzma-dev
> >     Description: XZ (and LZMA) compression format – development files
> >     
> >     Package: liblzma-doc
> >     Description: XZ (and LZMA) compression format – API documentation
>
> If I install all them all, have I installed the compression format?

Is a “compression format” something you install? I think if you're
looking for a utility program, you'll find it in the package talking
about those; if you're looking for a library, you'll find it in the
package talking about those.

I don't think it makes sense to write from the point of view of “install
a format”. So perhaps the core should be the library:

    Package: liblzma0
    Description: XZ (and LZMA) compression library

    Package: xz-utils
    Description: XZ (and LZMA) compression library – command-line utilities
    
    Package: liblzma-dev
    Description: XZ (and LZMA) compression library – development files
    
    Package: liblzma-doc
    Description: XZ (and LZMA) compression library – API documentation

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Ben Finney