I would like to stay as close as possible to Fedora's packaging best practices. Even if I don't submit the resulting packages to Fedora for review, it's important to get as close to the guidelines as possible.
From what I understand, the "right" way to package multiple parallel versions of one library is the 'compat-*' convention (http://docs.fedoraproject.org/drafts/rpm-guide-en/ch18s02.html has an overview). I took a look at the specs and manifests for a couple of existing compat packages, and I think I understand the concept pretty well. I think I can adapt the existing spec files and follow the conventions.
But I have a lot of questions, too, and I was hoping that anybody in the know could help me.
* Is anything about the compat convention standardized, or a matter of policy? I saw that the FESCO discussed about the issue, a while back, but I feel like I may have missed something more recent.
* I can understand why large numbers of compat packages are frowned upon, and 15+ compats to support one measly application seems excessive, even to me. Is this the kind of thing that would torpedo a package review, completely? Or is there room for discussion, given a commitment to improve the situation (i.e., update the application) in time?
* What kinds of compat packages, and what specifically about them, are considered bad? I've noticed that some compats don't appear to be included in Fedora, like 'compat-python24'. It seems like a useful package, but I'm seeing it in RPM Fusion--why didn't it pass review?
* In the future, what direction is Fedora taking the compat convention? What kinds of long-term issues should I worry about, if I want to get ahead of the curve?
If anyone can point me to existing resources on the compat subject, I would appreciate the links, too.
Ryan B. Lynch
ryan.b.lynch@xxxxxxxxx
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