[Pkg-ime-devel] -dev package dependency policy

[Osamu Aoki]

Hi,

I am sponsoring SCIM and I could not answer question from its
maintainer on how FTBFS bug should be resolved for Bug #283047.

Key part of discussion goes as folowing.  We need to know what is the
right way to fix this situation.

> ----- Forwarded message from Ming Hua <minghua@rice.edu> -----
> On Sat, Nov 27, 2004 at 09:03:29AM +0100, Osamu Aoki wrote:
> > On Fri, Nov 26, 2004 at 08:59:21PM -0600, Ming Hua wrote:
> > > 
> > > The scim packages are going fine, and scim-uim just got accepted to the
> > > repository by ftp master.  However, scim-uim now FTBFS on all arches.
> > > The reason looks like a simple missing build-depends, but it is actually
> > > more complicated.  
... 
> > > The details can be see at the BTS (bug #283047):
> > >     http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=283047
> > > 
> > > The short summary is:  scim-uim build-depends on libuim-dev.  After the
> > > scim-uim packages are prepared, uim packages enabled m17n support and
> > > libuim-dev indirectly depends on libm17n-0 now (through libuim0).
> > > With this new libuim-dev package, the command
> > >     pkg-config --libs "uim >= 0.3.9"
> > > generates "-luim -lm17n" instead of only "-luim" as before.
> > > 
> > > However, scim-uim doesn't have libm17n-dev as build-depends, but the
> > > configure script happily generates makefile with commands linking to
> > > libm17n.  So the build fails miserably.
 
... I agree libm17n-dev should depend on libm17n-dev.

> >    Package: libuim-dev
> >    Section: libdevel
> >    Architecture: any
> > -  Depends: libuim0 (= ${Source-Version}), uim-common
> > +  Depends: libuim0 (= ${Source-Version}), libm17n-dev, uim-common
> >    Description: Development files for uim
...
> > I see many -dev packages have this kind of dependency when packages are
> > linked. (Version dep may be needed.)
> 
> I read similar opnions in Debian Library Packaging Guide
> (http://www.netfort.gr.jp/~dancer/column/libpkg-guide/libpkg-guide.html#AEN80).
> To quote:
>     "The -dev package should depend on all -dev packages for libraries
>     that the library package depends upon..."
> 
> But this is actually a very strict requirement (since you are pulling in
> many -dev packages you don't even know through dependecies).  And it
> generates quite long Depends: list for -dev packages.  From what I see,
> few -dev packages follow this practice.  For example, our scim-dev
> package don't do this.
> 
> I also read somewhere saying this comment is outdated now, altough I
> can't remember where exactly.  So I am really not sure what is the right
> way to solve this bug.

Now I could not answer above message and asking help on this list.  So
next upload will be a good one for all the packages involved.

Regards,

Osamu