Guillem Jover writes ("Re: Multiarch file overlap summary and proposal (was: Summary: dpkg shared / reference counted files and version match)"): > On Tue, 2012-02-14 at 14:28:58 +0000, Ian Jackson wrote: > > I think the refcounting approach is very worthwhile because it > > eliminates unnecessary work (by human maintainers) in many simple > > cases. > > Aside from what I said on my other reply, I just wanted to note that > this seems to be a recurring point of tension in the project when it > comes to archive wide source package changes, where supposed short > term convenience (with its usually long term harmful effects) appears > to initially seduce people over what seems to be the cleaner although > slightly a bit more laborious solution.
The refcnt doesn't just eliminate unnecessary multiarch conversion work. It also eliminates unnecessary maintenance effort. Maintaining a split package will be more work than without. I think that over the lifetime of the multiarch deployment this extra packaging work will far outweigh the extra maintenance and documentation burden of the refcnt feature. > [...] But trying to workaround this by coming > up with stacks of hacked up solutions [...] I disagree with your tendentious phrasing. The refcnt feature is not a "hacked up solution" (nor a stack of them). It is entirely normal in Debian core tools (as in any substantial piece of software serving a lot of diverse needs) to have extra code to make it easier to deploy or use in common cases simpler. Ian. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-devel-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20283.57393.237949.649...@chiark.greenend.org.uk