Re: Why are libraries considered bad victims for first packages?

[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh <hmh@debian.org>]

On Tue, 11 Feb 2003, Michael Still wrote:
> I have been an open source developer for some time, and am now an
> experienced Debian user (a whole week under my belt!).

Heh.

> I am interested in getting some of my code available as Debian packages,
> but the web pages I have been reading imply that it is a bad thing to
> attempt a library as a first package. Unfortunately most of my code
> depends on libraries which I have also written.

Library packaging is difficult to get right when you don't know the gotchas,
and require a damn good reading of the debian policy, and packaging
guides...  also, unless you really know how these things work, you are bound
to make mistakes with the shlibs versioning control.

You *can* get your software into Debian without doing it yourself (at least
at first).  Post a RFP (request-for-packaging) bug to wnpp
(http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp), and if someone finds it interesting, he
will package it for you.

> Why are libraries considered hard to package? Are the problems
> insurmountable for a newbiew?

No, but you better be ready to study a LOT on how dynamic linking and debian
policy re. libraries works first, to minimize trouble.  Lintian and linda
are your friends, and so is the packaging guide and debian-policy.

Also, learning by example is a good idea. Get a well-packaged library and
try to understand exactly why everything is done in a certain way...

If you can understand how the xfree86 lib packaging is done, you're about
ready to package your own without trouble :-)

-- 
  "One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
  them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
  where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
  Henrique Holschuh