Bug#706044: libhdf5-7: cannot compile C++ programs using hdf5 after upgrade to wheezy

[Burkhard Bunk]

Package: libhdf5-7
Version: 1.8.8-9
Severity: important

Dear Maintainer,

after updating to wheezy, the runtime lib libhdf5-serial-1.8.4_1.8.4-patch1-2
was missing. Programs compiled in squeeze didn't work anymore -- libhdf5.so.6:
cannot open. An attempt to recompile them (with C++) failed -- H5Cpp.h: No such
file or directory.

Analysis:
(1) libhdf5-7_1.8.8-9 (wheezy) conflicts with
libhdf5-serial-1.8.4_1.8.4-patch1-2.
This is a known problem, see #703340.
(2) libhdf5-dev_1.8.8-9 (wheezy) has broken C++ binding. This is also known,
see #660539 #660547 .

Bug (1) prevents downgrading to libhdf5-serial-dev_1.8.4-patch1-2 (squeeze),
as this removes the runtime lib from wheezy and prohibits updated versions of
several important applications (e.g. scilab, grace). This makes hdf5 in wheezy
unusable for C++ programmers, AFAIK. This is a serious regression, hence the
severity of the bug.

Workaround:
There is an updated version (1.8.8-9.1) of the hdf5 suite in unstable, which
addresses problem (1). After downloading the binary packages to a local
repository and putting a hold on libhdf5-serial-dev (in squeeze), the dist
upgrade had the dev packages at squeeze level and installed all runtime libs in
parallel.

Conclusion:
(a) Please allow hdf5_1.8.8-9.1 into the release of wheezy. It seems to improve
the situation in at least one important place.
If this cannot be done for some reason, I suggest to
(b) place hdf5_1.8.8-9.1 in wheezy-proposed-updates to make it easily available
for those who know what they need.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 7.0
   APT prefers testing-updates
   APT policy: (500, 'testing-updates'), (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 3.2.1-I686 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=en_US.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages libhdf5-7 depends on:
ii  libc6         2.13-38
ii  libgcc1       1:4.7.2-5
ii  libgfortran3  4.7.2-5
ii  libquadmath0  4.7.2-5
ii  zlib1g        1:1.2.7.dfsg-13

libhdf5-7 recommends no packages.

libhdf5-7 suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information

Regards,
Burkhard Bunk.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
  bunk at physik.hu-berlin.de      Physics Institute, Humboldt University
  fax:    ++49-30 2093 7628     Newtonstr. 15
  phone:  ++49-30 2093 7980     12489 Berlin, Germany
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