libdir migration protocol (was : Re: Prototype package for native/byte splitting)

[Sven Luther <luther@dpt-info.u-strasbg.fr>]

On Tue, Nov 26, 2002 at 03:30:24PM +0100, Jérôme Marant wrote:
> >>Did you write something explaining what has to change in terms
> >>of directory and package dependencies ?
> >
> For the libdir transition.

Well, provided your package use `ocamlc -where` to find the place where
to install the stuff and that the package is handling the dependency
conforming to the policy (ocaml-3.06 and ocaml-base-3.06), then you
just have to :

  o change the ocaml dependencies :

    ocaml-3.06 -> ocaml-3.06-1
    ocaml-base-3.06 -> ocaml-base-3.06.1

  o modify the debian/dirs to use the new ocaml libdir :

    usr/lib/ocaml -> usr/lib/ocaml/3.06

  o rebuild the package with the new version of ocaml.

And that's it.

`ocamlc -where` will point to /usr/lib/ocaml/3.06 and the stuff will be
installed there, and the new dependencies will guarantee that the new
package cannot be installed in conjunction with older ocaml or
libraries.

For the end user, this will have as consequence that all the ocaml stuff
will be on hold until all stuff he has installed has been rebuilt, so it
will be transparent for our current users. 

The only problem will be for people doing new installation, which will
not be able to install the not yet rebuilt stuff. But then, they can
still fall back on the testing/stable version (ocaml 3.04 though).

Now, maybe it would have been nice to do this transition and the .cmi
dependency stuff at the same time, not sure though.

Friendly,

Sven Luther