I have started building some java .debs and immediately run into some problems:
1. what do I depend on to have a 'javac' installed ? 2. when I want to compile something with a line like: javac -classpath /some/dir:/some/other/dir some_java_files this won't work because the classpath also needs to include the class libraries. These will change depending on what VM is installed, so how do I know where they are? 3. similarly, what do I depend on for a 'jar' tool? I'm thinking that fastjar may be best? 4. The current scheme where library .jars go into /usr/share/java/[repository], doesn't seem to take into account versioning. There is also no mention of versioning in the Java policy for /usr/share/java/repository files. Just like .so shared libraries it is very important that libraries (and programs) using a common namespace use versions to prevent breakages when things change. John Leuner