Re: Package separation/naming conventions

[Ole Streicher <debian-devel@liska.ath.cx>]

Jakub Wilk <jwilk@debian.org> writes:
> * Ole Streicher <debian-devel@liska.ath.cx>, 2011-09-21, 16:42:
>>- libwcs4 and libwcs4-dev
>>- libpgsbox4 and libpgsbox4-dev

> First of all, don't version your -dev package(s), unless you want to
> keep multiple versions of it in the archive at the same people. (You
> probably don't.)
> Also, unless there's good reason to separate -dev package, I'd create
> just a single one.

So I would just create a common wcslib-dev package, correct?

And, which dependencies should the wcslib-dev package have? libpgsbox.a
would contain references to pgplot5; which is non-free, old and
ugly. However, in most of the cases one would just develop for libwcs,
so libpgsbox.a is just for some rare special cases.

Should wcslib-dev therefore "suggest" pgplot, but not "depend" on it? 

>> Or is the link here made with the "suggests/enhances" dependency? And
>> what would then suggest what? libwcs4-dev suggests wcslib-doc, or
>> vice versa?

> You can use both. Or none. Users will find out which package they need
> anyway, so don't worry about it. :)

How would they do that? I personally would find it quite confusing to
find the development headers and documentation of "libpgsbox4" in
"wcslib-devel" resp. "wcslib-doc". 

>>- libwcs4-tools (two small executable)
>>- libpgsbox4-tools (one small executable)
>
> That make sense (except there's probably no need to version *-tools
> packages).

To summarize:

libwcs4 ......... shared library for libwcs.4.so
libpgsbox4 ...... shared library for libpgsbox.4.so
             ---> depends on libwcs4, pgplot5
wcslib-dev ...... headers and static libs for libwcs and libpgsbox
             ---> recommends libwcs4, wcslib-doc
             ---> suggests libpgsbox4, pgplot5
wcslib-doc ...... API documentation of libwcs and libpgsbox
             ---> suggests wcslib-dev
libwcs-tools .... small tools built with libwcs4
             ---> depends on libwcs4
libpgsbox-tools . small tool built with libpgsbox
             ---> depends on libwcs4, libpgsbox4, pgplot5

Any comments/improvements here? 

Is the division into main and contrib done automatically based on the
dependencies to non-free packages? And if a package requires a non-free
package to build, will it automatically go to contrib, even if the
package itself (like libwcs4) has no dependency to non-free?

Best regards

Ole