[Dict-common-dev] Recent changes in dictionaries-common: dh_aspell and others

[Agustin Martin]

On Wed, Jun 18, 2014 at 05:49:52PM +0200, Agustin Martin wrote:
> Dear spellchecking dictionaries and wordlists maintainers,
> 
> There were some recent changes in the system that may be interesting
> for your package, after initial work by Andreas Beckmann and Tobias
> Frost. Read below some reasons to consider upgrading your package to
> use some of the new features.
> 
> * aspell-simple:
> 
>   This is new feature intended to make things easier for people
>   maintaining aspell dictionaries created from pristine aspell
>   sources (created with aspell "proc" utility, as are those fetched
>   from aspell home page) that create nothing else than the aspell
>   dictionary package.
> 
>   In these cases, debian/rules can be made as compact as
> 
>   # ===== 8< =====
>   #!/usr/bin/make -f
> 
>   %:
>         dh $@ --with aspell-simple
> 
>   # this is not a GNU autoconf/automake build system
>   override_dh_auto_configure:
>         ./configure
>   # ===== >8 =====
> 
> * substvars:
> 
>   Added support for ${wordlist:Depends}, ${ispell:Depends},
>   ${aspell:Depends} and ${hunspell:Depends} substvars.
> 
> * ispell/aspell autobuildhash symlinks:
> 
>   Build structure and autobuildhash scripts have been changed to allow
>   those symlinks being no longer shipped with the package but created
>   by the ispell or aspell autobuildhash script.
> 
>   A list of automatically created  symlinks is put in a .remove list
>   to make sure they are removed from postrm. Dangling symlinks are
>   searched for and removed at the trigger run (this last may have been
>   enough, but having .remove files does not harm).
> 
>   This way we no longer need to ship any dangling symlink with the
>   dictionary package or wordlist.

Forgot to explicitly mention that this implies that packages relying on
this no longer available feature will no longer get it for new builds.
For this reason, *if and only if a new build is needed* they must have
their dictionaries-common dependency bumped to at least 1.23. substvars
use is highly recommended.

Don't panic, I went through the list of currently available dictionary
packages in sid, and all will work as they are now, no need to rebuild
just because of this notice.

This does not affect the binary:arch ispell or aspell dictionaries, unless
they are changed to use {a,i}spell-autobuidhash. Also, does not affect
packages that set the symlinks explicitly during their build process.

I am explicitly bcc'ing all packages that do not have an already updated
dependency, so maintainers are aware in case they need to upload a new
package using autobuildhash. Sorry if this message gets duplicated for
some of you.

> Most recent bug fixes and changes in the system came with
> dictionaries-common-dev 1.23.3, see changelog for the details. Consider
> build-depending on at least that version.

Regards,

-- 
Agustin