Paul Gevers wrote... > On 31-12-2022 10:06, Christoph Biedl wrote: > > > So src:libppd has been renamed to src:libppd-legacy, and has entered > > experimental yesterday. While doing so, I've fixed a longstanding > > mismatch in the soname version, hence the new number libppd-legacy*1*. > > I'm wondering what this means for users of the library that don't have > packages in the Debian archive. If some downstream (including the non > publicly published ones) (build) depend on the old library, they suddenly > get weird failures, right?
Correct.
Install-dependencies will fail for a missing libppd.so.1.0.1, just like
after any other transition (Till's libppd will use a different
soversion).
Build-dependencies will fail to build as the new libppd is not a drop-in
replacement. Till did some investigation in that direction, result boils
down to "Providing a compatability layer was possible but is some work",
while odds are low anyone will benefit from this, see below.
So, in the case of a failing re-build, users will need to learn about
the reason and how to deal with it. I've asked Till to embed an
according pointer in the packages' descriptions (debian/control) so
they'll have a clue.
However, I would be fairly surprised if that ever happens. This is very
old software and it is mostly unmaintained - last (legacy) libppd
upstream release was in 2005. Therefore I assume any third-party package
switched to something different in the meantime. I am not aware of any,
and a little research didn't show anything in that direction. Looking
for "libppd" usually just points to the new version, provided by
OpenPrinting.
Our alternative would have been to make the new libppd somehow fit
around the old one, stupid work, and with constant risk people will pick
the wrong one - something I consider way more likely to happen than
failing builds of some rather hypothetical third-party packages based
on legacy libppd.
> At the extreme bare minimum, this needs documentation in the release notes,
> but I wonder if we consider this enough.
Release notes will never hurt, thanks for reminding me about those. And
in the particular situation I'm confident this is enough. If you can
think of more safety nets I could provide, let me know.
Regards,
Christoph
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