file dependencies and packages and [blocker] bugs

[Hans de Goede]

seth vidal wrote:
> On Fri, 2008-02-29 at 20:03 +0100, Hans de Goede wrote:
> 
>> Okay, these are mine (which I already knew without looking at the report, as I 
>> very deliberately added the filedeps):
>>
>> /usr/share/fonts/bitstream-vera/Vera.ttf
>> xblast-0:2.10.4-5.fc9.i386
>> chess-0:1.0-12.fc9.i386
>>
>> /usr/share/fonts/dejavu/DejaVuSans-BoldOblique.ttf
>> sdljava-demo-0:0.9.1-9.fc9.i386
>>
>> /usr/share/fonts/dejavu/DejaVuSans-Bold.ttf
>> sdljava-demo-0:0.9.1-9.fc9.i386
>>
>> /usr/share/fonts/dejavu/DejaVuSans-Oblique.ttf
>> sdljava-demo-0:0.9.1-9.fc9.i386
>>
>> /usr/share/fonts/dejavu/DejaVuSans.ttf
>> sdljava-demo-0:0.9.1-9.fc9.i386
>>
>>
>> The problem with these packages is that the application in question (== 
>> game-ish app, using its own fontrending) opens these fonts by filename. not 
>> true any known font configuration mechanism.
>>
>> Combine this with the fact that fonts change both location and name regulary, 
>> and a simple dep on the font providing package wont't do. With these (not 
>> pretty) file deps I actually get broken deps reports send to me when this 
>> happens. Don't believe me? This is from the sdljava-demo changelog:
> 
> 
> Define 'regularly' for the fonts changing locations? Also - If they are
> changing so often why don't we talk to the font maintainers and get that
> to stop moving around?
> 

regulary as in this has happened several times in the short lifetime of Fedora 
(so in the last 4 years)

> 
> 
>> On the postive site, very few people have either of these installed, so I guess 
>> the best solution here is to notfix. But I'm open for other ways of catching 
>> filename changes in another package without using file deps.
> 
> It makes things like repoclosure take longer to run b/c it has to go get
> the filelists to resolve it all out.
> 
> Don't you think we should be able to do something to make this situation
> better or even rarer?
> 

Erm, no not really, these apps need a certain file to be in a certain place, 
isn't that what filedeps are for?

Maybe some more backgroundinfo on these apps:
1) They originally both ship with copies of Arial (!= free) in there tarbals,
which get installed into the apps own data dir under /usr/share/app.
2) I've ripped these out of the src-tarbal (and the resulting package) and 
replaced them with symlinks to the same style fonts from vera / dejavu.

Notice that these are currently the only 2 packages with this problem, because 
many games still ship with private copies (which really should be replaced with 
symlinks), for example when I execute the following find under /usr/share, I 
get (non interesting results removed):
[hans at localhost share]$ find -name "vera*" -o -name "Vera*" -o -name "Deja*" -o 
-name "deja*" -o -name "Free*.ttf"
./brutalchess/fonts/VeraMono.ttf
./hedgewars/Data/Fonts/DejaVuSans.ttf
./childsplay/Data/VeraSeBd.ttf
./blobAndConquer/data/fonts/vera.ttf
./tvtime/FreeMonoBold.ttf
./tuxpaint/fonts/FreeSans.ttf
./tuxpaint/fonts/FreeSansBoldOblique.ttf
./tuxpaint/fonts/FreeMonoOblique.ttf
./tuxpaint/fonts/FreeMono.ttf
./tuxpaint/fonts/FreeMonoBold.ttf
./tuxpaint/fonts/FreeSansOblique.ttf
./tuxpaint/fonts/FreeMonoBoldOblique.ttf
./tuxpaint/fonts/FreeSerif.ttf
./tuxpaint/fonts/FreeSerifBold.ttf
./tuxpaint/fonts/FreeSansBold.ttf
./tuxpaint/fonts/FreeSerifBoldItalic.ttf
./tuxpaint/fonts/FreeSerifItalic.ttf
./doc/jack-audio-connection-kit-devel-0.109.2/reference/latex/FreeSans.ttf
./doc/liblo-devel-0.24/latex/FreeSans.ttf
./doc/physfs-devel-1.0.1/latex/FreeSans.ttf

And this is on my recently reinstalled system (with thus little games 
installed, atleast for me).

I really believe all these packages should be fixed to stop shipping a private 
copy of these fonts. The way todo this is to symlink to the installed official 
versions, as the packages will actually look for for example
/usr/share/blobAndConquer/data/fonts/vera.ttf and then do their own rendering 
(as overlay to a rendered game scene).

And I'm afraid I see no way to _cleanly_ drag in the needed fonts without using 
a file requires.

Regards,

Hans