Re: debian ocaml packaging policy :: findlib->site-lib
On 31-12-2008, Stefano Zacchiroli <zack@debian.org> wrote:
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> On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 08:20:48PM +0000, Sylvain Le Gall wrote:
>> Full ACK with Stephane. The link is just a compatibility hack, writing
>> it into policy is another hack.
>
> You cannot possibly believe that documenting into the policy the
> findlib site-lib location is a hack. Why then writing the OCaml
> standard library path is not a hack? It would be enough to tell people
> to use `ocamlc -where` everywhere ...
>
I don't mean documenting it is a hack. I mean that there is other way to
find it when dealing with ocamlfind. After all, if findlib want to make
it mandatory, this should be something done at findlib level.
Writing something that should be upto findlib in the Debian policy,
seems strange to me.
> So, if people are uncomfortable with the symlink, I'll drop it, but
> please remember that Debian is not about telling people how to do
> thing the right way: if out there there were a lot of software relying
> on site-lib, and if we can support it easily without messing up with
> our coherent distribution, we should do that.
>
I really find convenient the way things are actually done in Debian. I
know that it won't change a lot of thing to add the symlink, but I don't
want it to be written in the policy.
My POV regarding this problem is that everything is working fine with
the current situation except that it is not clear how to get
configuration to know where things are installed.
If you spend a little time reading findlib doc, I think you can achieve
to find anything you want regarding standard path/package installed.
Providing the symlink will create a "false" standard, letting people
hard code library path (`ocamlc -where`/site-lib/oUnit) rather than
using findlib correctly (`ocamlfind query -format "%d" oUnit`).
But maybe I am missing something in this discussion. Please let me know
if I don't understand what is the problem and what cannot be achieved
using standard findlib.
Regards,
Sylvain Le Gall
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