[Fedora-packaging] Guidelines#DuplicateFiles clarification

[Michael Schwendt]

On Sun, 15 Feb 2009 10:59:30 -0800, Toshio wrote:

> > How about:
> > 
> >     In a Fedora package .spec file, any of the files/dirs installed in
> >     the buildroot must not be included in the package(s) %files lists more
> >     than once. Unless there is good reason, and in that case there ought to
> >     be a comment in the .spec file.
> > 
> What's an example of a good reason?

A comment in the spec files which explains _why_ the files are duplicated. ;-)

> (For instance, I want to know if including README/COPYING in multiple
> subpackages is best practice or should be frowned upon).

Can you point to a package that does that?
Perhaps examining specific pkgs would help?

If it shall be possible to install the subpackages individually and
separate from eachother, that may be reason enough to include such %doc
files in each pkg as a matter of convenience for the user [and as not to
create a -common pkg for just a few files]. Same applies to directories,
as not to create a -common pkg just for directory ownership. In general,
it may even be applicable to scripts and binaries shared by separately
installable subpackages.

If it's a lib pkg that includes the docs a 2nd time in the -devel pkg,
that would be bad. In particular because usually the -devel pkg requires
the main lib pkg -- and because our placement of %doc files is broken.
Every subpackage creates its own docdir, which means that a lib and its
-devel pkg put their %doc files into two docdirs.

Or not a good reason would be if a packager duplicates files in subpkgs
just to make rpmlint ("No documentation") happy.