Hi, during yesterday's FPC meeting, I voted "0" on this proposal: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PackagingDrafts/Treatment_Of_Bundled_Libraries <cite> Packages with Bundled Libraries Packages which contain bundled libraries (bundled libraries being defined as libraries which exist and are mantained independently, whether or not they are packaged separately for Fedora) must be handled in the following manner: * Bundled libraries (and/or their source code) must be explicitly deleted during %prep. Build scripts may need to be patched to deal with this situation. Whenever possible, the patching should be done in a way to conditionalize use of the bundled libraries, so that it can be sent upstream for consideration. * It is not necessary to remove bundled libraries from the source tarball unless there is a legal reason to do so * Bundled libraries must NEVER end up in a package, even if they are not used. ... </cite> As I won't be able to attend FPC meetings for the next 2 weeks, I was asked to elaborate my vote here: a) I perceive this proposal as unclear, esp. wrt. a definition of "library". It on one hand refers to "bundled binary libraries" (c.f. bootstrapping) on the other hand, it refers to "bundled sources", but it is unclear about bundled "libraries" of scripted languages (e.g. perl modules). b) Conditionally building "bundled libraries" or parts from them statically and linking against them statically, is a common way, packages apply to escape from distributions shipping "old/insufficient" versions of libraries. I.e. * mandating removing bundled libs will render packaging such packages impossible, for distros which ship outdated/insufficient system libraries, e.g. RHEL. * "removing bundled libs" presumes "bundled libs" to be explicit. In reality, this often is circumvented by "bundling a lib's files" instead of a whole library. I.e. this proposal is "blacklisting" one use case, but ignores another use-case. c) The proposal is explicitly demanding to "remove bundled libraries" in %prep. This is applicable without problems in some cases, with some efforts attached to it in many cases, but it also is technically difficult to implement in occasions (== error-prone and non-feasible). Esp. in the latter cases, reality tells that it's often close to impossible to "upstream" patches resulting from this, because certain upstreams consider their "bundling" to be a feature and not to be a "defect/bad design". All in all, I agree with the objectives of this proposal but consider this proposal to be too rough/un-cooked and to be non-applicable/non-helpful. It should be reworded to express the intentions behind it [1] and may-be provide some "cookbook receipes". Ralf [1] "Re-use system-libs when ever possible". -- packaging mailing list packaging@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/packaging
