In my previous mail I talked about some ideas to ease transitions. I've thought over this a bit more and come up with several different approaches which could be used. Here is a list with their pros (+) and cons (-). Bear in mind that in all cases most of the work will be done for you by javahelper.
In the list below when I say "version" I mean "API version" not "upstream release version". API version changes when upstream change the API and is encoded in the package name. Which of these options do people think are acceptable / preferred? No support ---------- Basically what we have at the moment, but without version numbers in jar names and symlinks. + simple, doesn't require lots of faff + no fake transitions - no coinstallability of old versions - all real transitions cause flag days Separate -dev packages ---------------------- The heavy-weight approach that is most like C and relies on the package manager a lot. + transitions don't need to be coordinated so much + can have coinstalled packages of different versions + build-depends don't change between versions + most transitions can be binnmus - lots of -dev packages which only contain 1 symlink Combined -dev/-doc packages --------------------------- As above, but the -dev also contains the javadoc + transitions don't need to be coordinated so much + can have coinstalled packages of different versions + build-depends don't change between versions + most transitions can be binnmus - -dev packages are potentially large and you build-depend on them Post-inst symlink control ------------------------- All the library packages contain postinst/prerm scripts which ennsure the symlink always points to the most recent version, there is no separate -dev. + transitions don't need to be coordinated so much + can have coinstalled packages of different versions - build-depends do change between versions - transitions can't be binnmus Conflicting packages -------------------- Library packages conflict with other versions of themselves and contain the unversionned symlink. + transitions don't need to be coordinated so much - can't have coinstalled packages of different versions - build-depends do change between versions - transitions can't be binnmus Matt -- Matthew Johnson
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