[Pkg-xfce-devel] Thoughts about the future migration to xfce4-panel 4.8

[Lionel Le Folgoc]

Hi there,

I've been thinking lately about the best way to prepare the upload of
xfce4-panel 4.8 (right, it's for the future, after squeeze, but there's
already some branches in desktop/branches/experimental :p). I spoke with
Corsac a few weeks ago, but we probably forgot already what we said, so
here is a(n attempt of) summary.

The issue is that xfce4-panel 4.8 breaks the ABI, so any plugin built
against xfce4-panel 4.6 will break and must be rebuilt (no API change
though, so it can be handled by binnmus I guess). However, panel plugins
currently depend on xfce4-panel (>= 4.6), so nothing prevents apt from
upgrading xfce4-panel to 4.8 when a 4.6 plugin is still installed…

So far, here are some ideas:

1) Keep the packaging as-is:
   * upload a new 4.6 revision to add xfce4-panel (<< 4.7.0) to shlibs
   * binnmu all plugins
   * (release squeeze :p)
   * upload 4.8 panel with shlibs (>= 4.7.0)
   * binnmu all plugins again (and a user can't update the panel unless
     all plugins have been rebuilt)

It's the simplest/easiest one (can also be done with virtual packages
'xfce4-panel-4.6-abi' and 'xfce4-panel-4.8-abi' if we don't want to play
with versioned shlibs, but that looks a bit overkill).

However, a package split could be considered, as programs like thunar
that provide a panel plugin don't need to depend/recommend xfce4-panel,
but only its library (since it's not their main feature).

2) Split bin/libs:
   * upload a new 4.6 revision with a new libxfce4panel1 split binary
     package
   * binnmu all plugins, they'll depend on the lib only then
   * (release squeeze, o'rly?)
 a)
   * upload 4.8 panel, the library pkg is libxfce4panel-1.0-3, and
     Breaks: xfce4-panel (<< 4.7.0)
   * binnmu all plugins again, they'll depend on the new lib only
or
 b)
   * upload 4.8 panel, the library pkg is libxfce4panel-1.0-3, and
     the xfce4-panel pkg Breaks: libxfce4panel1 (<< 4.7.0)
   * binnmu all plugins again
or
 c)
   * upload 4.8 panel, the library pkg is libxfce4panel-1.0-3, and
     Breaks: libxfce4panel1 (<< 4.7.0)
   * binnmu all plugins again

The two first ideas (2a & 2b) seem semantically ok, but afaui, they are
not enough to ensure a smooth transition: in a), it's possible to keep a
4.6 plugin installed at the same time as the 4.8 panel, and in b), a
plugin for 4.8 can be installed at the same time as the 4.6 panel…

The last idea (2c) works fine in this aspect, but doesn't look "right",
i.e.  libxfce4panel-1.0-3 doesn't "really" break libxfce4panel1, it's
not the correct relationship…

Voila :)

I don't have a strong preference, as long as it works, but I think that
the split might be useful.

Ideas (maybe I forgot an obvious solution), thoughts, rants[*]?

Cheers,
Lionel

[*] Sorry for the very long mail :p

-- 
Lionel Le Folgoc
E61E 116D 4BA1 3936 0A33  F61D 65D9 A66E 10E2 969A
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