Re: question about placements in /usr/share/xml
Adam Di Carlo (adam@onshored.com) wrote:
> Mark Johnson <mrj@ibiblio.org> writes:
>
> > On Sat, Jan 31, 2004 at 06:07:40PM -0600, Ardo van Rangelrooij wrote:
> >> So, the root SGML catalog file only knows about package
> >> SGML catalog files that live in /etc/sgml which on their turn only
> >> know about local SGML catalogs living under /usr/share/sgml.
> >
> > I, again, don't understand the need to put SGML catalogs under
> > /usr/share/sgml. There's nothing inconsistent about doing it this way.
> [...]
> > There's no way that I'll ever agree with what you're proposing. Someone
> > else needs to weigh in, so we can get some sort of consensus.
>
> I'm with Mark here. If I have XML data going in
> /usr/share/xml/docbook/4.0/ for instance, obviously I'll have my XML
> catalog, /usr/share/xml/docbook/4.0/catalog.xml. Doesn't it also make
> sense to have my SGML catalog, /usr/share/xml/docbook/4.0/catalog ?
>
> Seems to make sense to me, as a user or as a package maintainer.
>
> Symlinks should only be provided to support *legacy* locations --
> e.g., the file used to be in /usr/share/sgml/docbook/4.0, but now it's
> /usr/share/sgml/docbook/4.0 .
>
> Lets not overcomplicate matters please. I don't see any reason why
> SGML catalogs cannot reside in /usr/share/xml/.... Remember the
> catalog is just the registration of some content (a DTD or entity
> file). That is to say, its metadata. Whether the *content* itself is
> SGML or XML should determine whether it goes in /usr/share/sgml or
> /usr/share/xml .
Ok, let's start with the basics: The purpose of these symlinks is to support
legacy. But what kind of legacy? Legacy from an SGML catalog system point of
view or legacy for tools/applications that don't use the SGML catalog system
but expect to be able to directly access XML entities under /usr/share/sgml?
I've done a little experiment: I _did not_ create a symlink from /usr/share/xml
to /usr/share/sgml for the xml-core stuff. Instead I just installed the local
SGML catalog file under /usr/share/xml together with the other xml-core stuff
and pointed the package SGML catalog file to the local SGML catalog file under
/usr/share/xml. So, all xml-core stuff now lives only under /usr/share/xml.
I opened emacs to edit /etc/xml/xml-core.xml: psgml did not have any problem
whatsoever in finding the XML catalog DTD and all was good. Just as expected.
So, for legacy from an SGML catalog system point-of-view we don't need to
symlink; we just need to update the package SGML catalogs to point to the
new location under /usr/share/xml.
This leaves legacy support for tools & applications that do their own thing.
How many of those do we have and which are those? Can they be fixed?
Thanks,
Ardo
--
Ardo van Rangelrooij
home email: ardo@debian.org
home page: http://people.debian.org/~ardo
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