Policy about /usr/share
Hi,
From the lintian changes file:
______________________________________________________________________
* Improved `files' check: No package should install files directly into
/usr/share. New tag:
file-directly-in-usr-share
______________________________________________________________________
I did not see anything in Policy about /usr/share. FSSTND says
/usr/share shall be covered later, since Linux is only one
architecture anyway. Since that assumption is dated and patently
inapplicable anymore, I do not see a reason to adhere that strictly
to the letter of FSSTND.
______________________________________________________________________
The directory /usr/share typically contains architecture-independent
files such as man-pages, timezone, terminfo information, etc. As of
this time, there are no different architectures for Linux, but with the
passage of time we should see Linux include other architectures and
other UNIX-like systems.
One note: no program should ever reference anything in /usr/share. For
instance, a manual page program should never directly look in
/usr/share/man/man1/ls.1, but it should refer to /usr/man/man1/ls.1 at
all times. Anything in /usr/share will be "pointed to" by the use of
symlinks from other areas in the filesystem, such as /usr/man,
/usr/lib/<something>, etc.
______________________________________________________________________
So, what does the check mean? 66 packages install files into
/usr/share. It seems OK to put files in there, as long as no program
ever references thos files directly. Is that right? What does the FHS
say?
manoj
__> egrep -l /usr/share/ /var/lib/dpkg/info/*.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/a2ps.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/automake.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/bison.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/bsdgames-nonfree.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/bsdgames.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/bug.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/chktex.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/comerrg-dev.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/cutils.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/debian-policy.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/developers-reference.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/dialdcost.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/display-dhammapada.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/doc-base.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/dpkg.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/enscript.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/explorer-icons-ms.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/explorer.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/file.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/fileutils.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/fortunes-off.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/fortunes.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/freetype1.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/gettext.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/gforth.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/gimp-data-extras.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/gimp-data-min.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/gimp.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/gnome-icons.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/gnome.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/gnuplot.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/grep.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/groff.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/gstep-base0.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/id-utils.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/kbd.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libguile2-dev.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libguile2.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/libtool.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/lintian.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/locales.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/man-db.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/miscfiles.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/ncurses-base.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/ncurses-term.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/octave-ci.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/octave.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/ppd-gs.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/quake-lib.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/recode.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/scwm.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/sharutils.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/shellutils.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/ssg-dev.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/tar.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/textutils.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/timezones.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/troffcvt.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/typist.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/units.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/vgrind.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/w3-el.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/wmaker.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/wwwtable.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/xacc.list
/var/lib/dpkg/info/xinvaders.list
--
The Tree of Learning bears the noblest fruit, but noble fruit tastes
bad.
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@acm.org> <http://www.datasync.com/%7Esrivasta/>
Key C7261095 fingerprint = CB D9 F4 12 68 07 E4 05 CC 2D 27 12 1D F5 E8 6E
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