Russ Allbery schrieb: > Sven Mueller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > >> If it is created on install, why is it in the packages filelist in the >> first place? Other packages also generate (supposedly architecture >> dependend) files during postinst, without shipping a placeholder in the >> .deb - so what is the reason why [ia]spell does that? >> >> Uhm, also: I couldn't find any such example in the [ia]spell packages >> themselves nor in wamerican, myspell-de-de, ispell-de-de so perhaps >> (some of) those packages used to do that sort of stuff, but refrain from >> doing so now? > > All I know about this topic is at: > > http://lists.debian.org/debian-mentors/2006/10/msg00075.html > http://bugs.debian.org/324111 > http://bugs.debian.org/346410 > http://bugs.debian.org/374949 > http://bugs.debian.org/401070 > > I'm happy to remove the exception again if this has changed. >
In all those mails, the only justification for shipping these files in the package - though they are changed (rebuilt?) during postinst - is the following sentence from Brian Nelson (pyro): > Also, not > including these files in the .deb packages significantly complicates the > packaging. I really don't want to change to manangement of the files in > maintainer scripts without a very good reason to do so. He doesn't give any information _why_ this complicates packaging that much, while his decision imposes additional work and complexity on others (be it the exception in lintian and probably linda or the difference between "dpkg -L" and the contents of the md5sums file, which makes integrity checking a bit harder). IMHO, packages (.deb) should only include files which are either listed in conffiles or in md5sums. The hash files in aspell/ispell/wordlist packages (for example*: aspell-en, idutch) are neither conffiles nor in md5sums. They are said to be arch-dependend and if I understand the aspell-en debian/rules correctly, they are shipped as empty files. I don't see why they couldn't just be created empty by the postinst before building the hash tables. I especially don't see how that complicates packaging. cu, Sven * Thanks to Kurt Roeckx for the examples PS: I just verified that the files in question are indeed zero-length files at least in aspell-en -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
