Bug#458713: libxml-xpath-perl: should be phased out in favour of other alternatives
Package: libxml-xpath-perl
Version: 1.13-6
Severity: important
It looks like the libxml-xpath-perl package should be phased out and
eventually get removed from Debian. The module is unmaintained upstream
(last release was in 2003), and there's a maintained, faster and less
buggy alternative available in libxml-libxml-perl.
The codebase in XML::XPath has also been forked upstream into
XML::XPathEngine with a different API. The libxml-xpathengine-perl
package entered Debian in late 2007.
See also the perl-xml thread starting at
http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/Mail/Message/perl-xml/3438368
I do plan to get the Debian package in a better state now that we're
adopting it for the pkg-perl group. Still, I think the best solution
in the long run would be to get it removed, as fixing eg. #315628 is on
the borderline of diverging the API from upstream.
The reverse dependencies of libxml-xpath-perl are currently
* libxml-atom-perl: alternatively supports libxml-libxml-perl
* libxml-twig-perl: alternatively supports libxml-xpathengine-perl
* libsql-translator-perl: currently only supports libxml-xpath-perl
The libxml-xpath-perl package also provides /usr/bin/xpath, which could
easily be reimplemented with libxml-libxml-perl if deemed necessary.
The implementation in /usr/share/doc/libxml-libxml-perl/examples/xpath.pl
is already pretty close.
As a first step, I suggest a deprecation warning in the libxml-xpath-perl
long description and README.Debian, and filing bugs on libxml-atom-perl
and libxml-twig-perl to move away from libxml-xpath-perl. I'll also look
at porting libsql-translator-perl to libxml-libxml-perl.
Cc'ing debian-perl@lists.d.o for comments.
Cheers,
--
Niko Tyni ntyni@debian.org
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