Questions about spec
Folks,
Q1. A lot of peripheral libraries (ncurses, etc.) seem to be left
out of the
spec. Is this intentional? Or are these intended for the spec
but simply
aren't in there yet? (mabye destined for Utility Libraries
section)?
The reason I ask is because there are a lot of programs that
depend on these
non-core libraries. Granted they are often client-centric
programs, but is
LSB a server-centric spec? While LSB can't be all things to all
ISVs, I
would hope that an LSB-compliant distro would allow you to
install many of
the basics like mutt, etc., which rely on finding a certain
version of these
libraries. In fact I would guess that many server-centric
programs will
expect these libraries, since they have client-focused elements
for managing
and using the server software. For example, I recall that HP
Open Mail
wouldn't install on Caldera 2.2 because Caldera had several out
of date
libraries - Unfortunately I just can't recall which libraries
they were at
the moment or if they fall into the LSB spec. But I'm guessing
from memory
that the LSB spec wouldn't cover these libs - and I think it
should cover
anything that a product like HP Open Mail would need.
Q2. I noticed that the libraries specified in the spec are named
things like
libX11.lsb.6 - is this for our own reference, or are we
specifying that the
libraries must have specifically this name and version # (with
"lsb" in the
name) in order to be compliant?
Q3. Are we asking for trouble by not requiring permissions for
directories
in FHS 2.x to be compliant?
Q4. Since we're not yet getting into things like KDE and GNOME
compliance,
should we in the meantime define guidelines for what an ISV must
include
that is not in the LSB spec? In other words, give instructions
on what an
ISV must do in order to provide a KDE or GNOME application (for
example,
ISVs must either provide the latest KDE/GNOME libraries that are
required
for their app to run, or make their application backward
compatible with
versions X.X so that the latest libraries are not required).
Pardon me if these issues have already been hashed out - just
coming up to
speed here. I'm sure I'll have many more questions as I continue
to dig.
-Nick
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Nicholas Petreley LinuxWorld - InfoWorld
nicholas@petreley.com - http://www.petreley.com - Eph 6:12
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