Re: Package names in a proposal for scsh packages

Michel Schinz <[email protected]> writes:

> Jorgen Schaefer <[email protected]> writes:
>
>> If not, I would propose to change the proposal to be more along
>> the Debian rules, that is, that the meaning of dash and underdash
>> be switched in the package name definition of the proposal for
>> scsh packages.
>
> That's a possibility, but it would mean that existing package archives
> would have to be renamed (i.e. scx-0.2.tar.gz would have to be renamed
> scx_0.2.tar.gz).

A valid point. It wasn't a problem for Debian since they have a
seperate package format, while this proposal is an extension to an
existing package format (tar.{gz,bz2} with some included files).
So we have to live with "what is".

> I would prefer to simply allow dashes in package names, and use
> the very last dash as a version separator.

Debian and RPM use a dash in the version number to seperate a
distribution-dependent revision (e.g. foo_1.0-3 is the third
modified upload of version 1.0 of package foo in Debian).

If you plan on "packaging third-party packages" for scsh, that is,
modifying some other source, it might be useful to plan ahead to
such needs as saying "damn, my first attempt to package had a bug,
I have to package it again, but the upstream version didn't
change".

> I could also deprecate the use of underdashes in package names,
> to avoid conflict with Debian and Fink (I don't think any
> released package has an underdash in it's name anyway). To
> summarise, a package name would be composed of ASCII letters,
> digits or dashes.

If a package contains an underdash, that is changed to a dash in
most packages when they are added to Debian.

The relevant specification from the Debian guidelines at
http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields.html#s-f-Package:

| Package names must consist only of lower case letters (a-z),
| digits (0-9), plus (+) and minus (-) signs, and periods (.).
| They must be at least two characters long and must start with an
| alphanumeric character.

That is, compared to your idea, Debian also allows the plus sign
and the dot.

Though the plus is sometimes used (as in dvd+rw), I'm not feeling
particularily strong about it (most often, it's used in the
context of C++, so, who cares...).

The dot is mostly used to indicate a fixed version in the package
name, something you might not need with scsh. The exceptions to
this are NeXTStep stuff like Mail.app and .NET stuff, both of
which aren't really relevant to scsh.

> Would that change be acceptable for you (and for others)? If it
> is, I'll incorporate it in the next release, hopefully with an
> initial (simple) support for dependencies.

As long as dashes and ASCII-alphanumeric stuff is allowed, I'm a
happy user :-)

Thanks and Greetings,
        -- Jorgen

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