Bug#347581: debian-policy: Explicitly permit *-headers binary package created from library source package

[Brian Nelson <pyro@debian.org>]

"Kevin B. McCarty" <kmccarty@Princeton.EDU> writes:

> Could Policy be amended slightly to explicitly permit library source
> packages to create a <library>-headers package containing include files?
>
> I am thinking that something like the following could be added between
> the existing first and second paragraphs of Section 8.4, "Development
> files",
> http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-sharedlibs.html#s-sharedlibs-dev
>
> [begin suggested text]
> If your library source package includes a large number of header files
> that are to be installed in /usr/include or subdirectories thereof, it
> may place them in a binary package called librarynamesoversion-headers
> or (if you prefer only to support one development version at a time, or
> if the library API is preserved across different soversions)
> libraryname-headers.  If you do this, the development package must
> Depend upon the headers package.  If the development package is
> architecture-dependent and the headers package is not, the development
> package should not require exactly the same version of the headers
> package in order to prevent problems arising from binary NMUs.
> [end suggested text]
>
> Without this or a similar text, it is not clear to me that source
> packages creating <library>-headers binary packages are in compliance
> with Policy, which currently says "The development files associated to a
> shared library need to be placed in a package called
> librarynamesoversion-dev, or if you prefer only to support one
> development version at a time, libraryname-dev."

It's not clear to me that splitting out the headers is actually a good
thing (it's very annoying for autobuilders since the corresponding -dev
package won't be installable until the new version has been autobuilt),
so I certainly don't think policy should endorse it.

> CC'ed to debian-devel in case anyone wants to add to or disagree with
> this suggestion.

Uh, no it's not.

-- 
Captain Logic is not steering this tugboat.