util-linux

[Robert Millan]

Looks like util-linux will be a serious trouble.  Both upstream and debian
maintainers have no interest in getting it to work on non-Linux.  AFAIK they
require silly things like using unportable interfaces (ioctls) for the sake of
supporting libc5 (!!), etc.

Guillem, do you expect they will ever accept to sanitise this in upstream?  If
not, maybe we should insist to the debian maintainer, but expectation is not so
good either.  From #debian-devel:

19:13 < nyu> lamont-work: any concern with #333147 ?  (util-linux on GNU/kFreeBSD)
19:13 < lamont-work> nyu: just the same concern as util-linux on GNU/hurd
19:13 < lamont-work> it's called util-_LINUX_ for a reason...
19:13 < lamont-work> so I've been ignoring the bug
19:14 < nyu> lamont-work: but it has things like getopt, more and rev that aren't Linux-specific
19:14 < nyu> how about splitting the package?
19:14  * lamont-work will have to ponder.
19:14 < nyu> ok, don't bother then
19:15 < nyu> we'll have to arrange it with upstream first
19:15 < nyu> Guillem was on it, I think

Another alternative would be to ditch this package completely, but then we'd
have to find alternatives:

  - rev:  Trivial to rewrite.  Could be in coreutils..
  - more:  Symlink to less ?
  - getopt:  No idea..

Maybe we could convince LaMont to split the package in source, so that there's a
portable version and a non-portable one?

-- 
Robert Millan