mono / ".pc files in -devel packges" guideline

[Tom 'spot' Callaway]

On Fri, 2006-05-12 at 18:27 +0200, Michael Schwendt wrote:
> On Fri, 12 May 2006 08:59:29 -0500, Tom 'spot' Callaway wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, 2006-05-11 at 15:08 -0400, Brian Pepple wrote:
> > 
> > > > Even if it is for development, is it worth forcing it off into a
> > > > -devel package for just one file?
> > 
> > If the .pc file is the ONLY file that would qualify for -devel (aka, no
> > headers, no static libs, nothing to develop a program against), then
> > there is no reason to force a -devel subpackage just for it.
> 
> There is one good reason: The .pc file contains dependencies on other .pc
> files, which are located in -devel packages. In this case, you would need
> a dependency ("Requires") from your non-devel package to -devel packages.
> Without that dependency, your package would break the pkgconfig dependency
> chain and several pkgconfig query commands.
> 
> To keep development files in -devel packages is the only clean solution.

Somehow, this discussion spilled off the list, and I didn't notice that
I wasn't replying here too.

As Michael Schwendt pointed out above, pkgconfig files depend on other
pkgconfig files (and in all released versions of FC, this is not
automatically detected by RPM). This is a very good reason not to
let .pc go into non -devel packages. If we permit .pc files in non-devel
packages, then we'll have non-devel packages that depend on -devel
packages, inflating the install needlessly. 

I'd rather have one .pc file in a -devel package than trigger a chain of
-devel packages to be installed when the user just wants to run a mono
app.

So, to be clear, I am not planning on changing the guidelines to deal
with this issue. All .pc files need to go in -devel packages, even if it
is the only -devel worthy file (which is the exception rather than the
norm).

~spot
-- 
Tom "spot" Callaway: Red Hat Senior Sales Engineer || GPG ID: 93054260
Fedora Extras Steering Committee Member (RPM Standards and Practices)
Aurora Linux Project Leader: http://auroralinux.org
Lemurs, llamas, and sparcs, oh my!