Re: libkpathsea3 -> libkpathsea4 transition?

[Frank Küster <frank@debian.org>]

Hilmar Preusse <hille42@web.de> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> just a reminder: are there still library transitions in progress?
> IIRC there were an E-Mail on dda, that the most important stuff is
> gone.
> Shouldn't we start to move the package depending on libkpathsea3 to
> libkpathsea4?

I don't know what -release would have to say, but as the packages are
now (libkpathsea-dev from the libkpathsea3 sources, plus
libkpathsea4-dev currently *not* providing libkpathsea-dev), I think we
need not force any transition.  Instead we can transition the packages
smoothly.  I suggest the following procedure:

0. wait until libkpathsea4 is in testing (should be only a couple of
   days) 

1. Identify all packages depending on libkpathsea3 and propose a
   mass-bug filing on -devel, describing this procedure; submit bugs of
   normal severity.

2. Give the maintainers some time, start submitting patches for
   packages that aren't uploaded with a build-dep on "libkpathsea4-dev |
   libkpathsea-dev", start with those least likely to be actively
   maintained. 

3. When the number of packages still depending on libkpathsea3 is low
   enough, increase the severity and start NMUing.  The problem here is
   that we can't just check whether the package builds, but instead need
   to verify that it also does work.

The final goal should be to have no packages depending on libkpathsea3
in etch, and to drop it completely in etch+1.

Comments?

Regards, Frank
-- 
Frank Küster
Single Molecule Spectroscopy, Protein Folding @ Inst. f. Biochemie, Univ. Zürich
Debian Developer (teTeX)