Bug#233379: Inefficient packaging of arch independent data in package kcontrol

[Steve McIntyre <steve@einval.com>]

Package: kcontrol
Version: various
Severity: normal

This is a semi-automated bug report based on scanning the contents of
binary .deb files in the unstable Debian archive.

The kcontrol packages seem to contain a very large amount of
architecture-independent data in architecture-dependent packages,
specifically data installed under /usr/share. This is wasteful of
mirror space and bandwidth, as we then end up with multiple copies of
this data, one for each architecture. Initial estimates suggest that
several gigabytes of Debian archive space may currently be wasted
because of packages like this.

The way to fix this depends on the layout of your package:

  * Some packages need to have a -common or -doc package split out to
    contain this common data, and the existing packages that need this
    data should then be altered to depend on the new -common or -doc
    package.

  * This package may already be such a -common or -doc package, in
    which case it probably should already be marked as Architecture:
    all in your debian/control file rather than Architecture: any .

  * Maybe the files under /usr/share do not belong there - several
    packages seem to contain data in /usr/share that is definitely
    architecture-dependent. In this case, please move the files into
    the right place.

Policy is quite clear on this point:

http://www.debian.org/doc/developers-reference/ch-best-pkging-practices#s-bpp-archindepdata

The usage of these packages is currently:
 debsize pkgsize /usr/share %  filename
 6041716  13804        6432 46 pool/main/k/kdebase/kcontrol_3.1.3-1_s390.deb
 6197526  15548        6420 41 pool/main/k/kdebase/kcontrol_3.1.5-2_alpha.deb
 5797588  12344        6420 52 pool/main/k/kdebase/kcontrol_3.1.5-2_arm.deb
 6249130  14076        6420 45 pool/main/k/kdebase/kcontrol_3.1.5-2_hppa.deb
 5973882  12828        6420 50 pool/main/k/kdebase/kcontrol_3.1.5-2_i386.deb
 6574828  18436        6420 34 pool/main/k/kdebase/kcontrol_3.1.5-2_ia64.deb
 6007304  12828        6420 50 pool/main/k/kdebase/kcontrol_3.1.5-2_m68k.deb
 5689996  14564        6420 44 pool/main/k/kdebase/kcontrol_3.1.5-2_mips.deb
 5669332  14576        6420 44 pool/main/k/kdebase/kcontrol_3.1.5-2_mipsel.deb
 5922942  12924        6420 49 pool/main/k/kdebase/kcontrol_3.1.5-2_powerpc.deb
 5881982  13024        6420 49 pool/main/k/kdebase/kcontrol_3.1.5-2_sparc.deb

Please split this package appropriately. If you believe your package
is already split reasonably, then sorry for bothering you. If you wish
to discuss this further, please feel free to reply to this bug. If you
agree that there's a problem here but need help to fix it: again, feel
free to ask...

Thanks,
--
Steve McIntyre, Cambridge, UK.                                steve@einval.com