On Sat, 03 Jul 1999, Darren O. Benham wrote:
> > This is principally the right way (according to FHS), but we
> > cannot recompile all packages now but we need a smooth way from
> > one directory to the other.
> Why do we need a smooth way?
Because Debian is the distribution, where the user can upgrade or keep
every single package without any drawbacks. So we cannot expect the
user to upgrade every package from one stable to the next stable. And
I don't like the idea to re-build >3000 packages for all architectures
only to be FHS compliant. This will take much time and our next
release is delayed by now...
But with some packages in /usr/doc and others in /usr/share/doc we
need some way for the user to quickly find the correct directory for a
special package.
> Some packages (including many of mine at the moment) are outta
> Policy compliance... If it's not a release critical bug, it doesn't
> have to be fixed before Potato goes out.
That's the point. So tell me how the user can find out where the
documentation for package xy is located without checking two
directories (which is annoying)?
> The FHS has a preferd way to make the transition... it's a symlink.
Sorry, but I cannot find this in the FHS. What symlink are you talking
about? One global symlink /usr/doc to /usr/share/doc? This causes two
problems (as someone pointed out in debian-devel):
- You have to "move" /usr/doc to /usr/share/doc first, which isn't
trivial, because you cannot use a recursive "mv" as long as you can
not be sure, that both directories are located on the same
filesystem. On the other hand "cp -a" (or alternatives using tar)
aren't optimal, because they temporary duplicate the disc usage of
/usr/doc which may be more than the free disc space (204MB on my
machine).
- There seem to be problems when installing a package which uses
/usr/doc/<package> while /usr/doc is a symlink to /usr/share/doc. I
don't exactly know what the problem is, but dpkg seems to have
trouble with this (ask someone, who is more familiar with dpkg than
me).
And if nevertheless decide to do it this way, there should be a
package introduce soon, which does this "move" before other packages
place their documentation in /usr/share/doc.
> There might be reasons you don't want it on *your* computer, but
> what is wrong with that track as a default for Debian?
See above (or tell me what other symlink you are talking about).
Ciao
Roland
--
* roland@spinnaker.de * http://www.spinnaker.de/ *
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