static libraries/devel subpackages

[Matthias Saou]

Ville Skyttä wrote :

> > * When should a devel package be done (I believe always if possible)
> 
> Whenever it makes sense.  It depends.  It's possible to make a -devel
> subpackage for let's say one *.so symlink and one *.h, but hardly worth
> it.  Better to have "Provides: %{name}-devel = %{version}-%{release}" in
> the main package instead and require that provided -devel in dependent
> packages (if any) in preparation for the future.

I agree with this, but just a quick addition : Even if the "devel relevant
files" are only a few kB, they should be split off if they require other
devel files.

Say that your GNOME app has one .h file and one .so symlink... seems like
it's not worth splitting off, but it'll be needed if you want to put the
proper "Requires: libgnome-devel" etc. for the devel part. Because if you
don't split off the files and put that dependency, you'll be forcing a
huge amount of devel files to be installed with the application, which is
wrong.

Just worth mentioning, since I already ran into this :-)

Matthias

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