[Mageia-dev] gstreamer packaging too split?

Wed Jul 6 14:40:42 CEST 2011

'Twas brillig, and Ahmad Samir at 05/07/11 10:50 did gyre and gimble:
+>> I see packages like gstreamer0.10-soup installed as separate packages.
+>> Is there any real gain from this split? Other than pulling in other
+>> libraries etc, as it just causes potential problems for some packages
+>> that do not require it. e.g. totem and rhythmbox both reqire the -soup
+>> package but phonon-gstreamer does not (it should).
+>>
+>> But really, should this library just be bundled into the main -good
+>> package?
+> 
+> I agree about merging -soup, without it gst-based apps can't seem to
+> play online streams, this is a basic functionality, I guess.
+> 
+>>  Ditto for other "overly split" things, like the pulse plugin,
+>> and the neon plugin in -bad....
+>>
+> 
+> I dunno about pulse, it would pull pulseaudio on users' systems (I
+> know it's installed by default, but some do a minimal install and
+> don't install pulse, even if the some of pulse libs are too dug deep
+> down the whole stack :)).
+
+Hmmm, gstreamer0.10-pulse requires "pulseaudio >= 0.9.7". Interesting.
+
+I'm not sure why (it could easily be installed on a system that does not
+have a PA daemon and operates as a thin client.
+
+Wonder if we should just drop that require and then the gst-pulse plugin
+only really requires libpulse which a *lot* of other things need anyway,
+and thus no additional stuff pulled in. WDYT?
+
+
+>> Has anyone sad down and thought about it a bit recently (here or in Mdv?)
+> 
+> (I have to admit, I didn't sit down and think about it before). Here goes:
+> 
+> ===========================
+> -good:
+> $ urpmf --sourcerpm gstreamer0.10-plugins-good | awk -F: '{print $1}'
+> gstreamer0.10-caca
+> gstreamer0.10-raw1394
+> gstreamer0.10-soup
+> gstreamer0.10-plugins-good
+> gstreamer0.10-dv
+> gstreamer0.10-wavpack
+> gstreamer0.10-pulse
+> gstreamer0.10-jack
+> gstreamer0.10-speex
+> gstreamer0.10-aalib
+> gstreamer0.10-flac
+> 
+> I think these can be merged in addition to -soup:
+> -flac, an open format, expected to work o-o-t-b, IMHO
+> -jack, doesn't matter really, it won't pull any more requires as
+> libjack.so.0 is deep in the stack anyway (just tested with urpme
+> --test and it wanted to yank 174 packages).
+> 
+> As for the rest I am not sure, e.g. I've never used -wavpack, so I
+> think they can remain split.
+
+Perhaps, but I'm just not convinced of the value of a split generally.
+Sure you could argue that pulling in an extra lib here and there can
+count for a lot of disk space, but then we end up with various problems
+for other packages (like the soup issue - although granted, one as
+obvious as that will likely not crop up with the more subtle extras -
+until some user plugs in their dv video camera...... :p)
+
+> =========================
+> -ugly looks OK to me.
+> 
+> $ urpmf --sourcerpm gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly | awk -F: '{print $1}'
+> gstreamer0.10-sid
+> gstreamer0.10-twolame
+> gstreamer0.10-a52dec
+> gstreamer0.10-cdio
+> gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly
+> gstreamer0.10-mpeg
+> 
+> 
+> Though merging -a52dec looks like a good idea given how widely used
+> the AC-3 codec is.
+> 
+> ==========================
+> I left the "bad" for last, they look OK too, each sub-package
+> pulls/requires a different lib (e.g. rtmp -> librtmp.so.0), I guess
+> that's a good splitting criteria; I've never used -neon so I'll take
+> your word for it :)
+> $ urpmf --sourcerpm gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad | awk -F: '{print $1}' |
+> grep -v lib
+> gstreamer0.10-rtmp
+> gstreamer0.10-nas
+> gstreamer0.10-rsvg
+> gstreamer0.10-soundtouch
+> gstreamer0.10-musepack
+> gstreamer0.10-gsm
+> gstreamer0.10-resindvd
+> gstreamer0.10-kate
+> gstreamer0.10-neon
+> gstreamer0.10-voip
+> gstreamer0.10-jp2k
+> gstreamer0.10-ladspa
+> gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad-doc
+> gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad
+> gstreamer0.10-celt
+> gstreamer0.10-schroedinger
+> gstreamer0.10-mms
+> gstreamer0.10-dc1394
+> gstreamer0.10-directfb
+> gstreamer0.10-dirac
+> gstreamer0.10-ofa
+> gstreamer0.10-wildmidi
+> gstreamer0.10-gme
+> gstreamer0.10-vdpau
+> gstreamer0.10-mpeg2enc
+> gstreamer0.10-vp8
+> gstreamer0.10-cog
+> gstreamer0.10-curl
+> 
+> 
+> (A bit off-topic, I think -nas should be deprecated, NAS doesn't seem
+> that used lately?).
+
+Yeah it is a bit of a grab-bag of stuff, but again, should we still just
+bundle everything together anyway and sod the extra disk space needed?
+It would be a lot simpler for users ("oh you need $foo? sure, just
+installed -ugly/-bad") which is advise they can get direct from upstream
+without having to know our particular packaging quirks.
+
+As someone who does upstream support for other projects, it's a pain to
+put caveats in all your advice for distros you don't know.
+
+That said, the trade off may be too much, hence the canvassing of
+opinions here :)
+
+Col
+
+
+
+
+
+-- 
+
+Colin Guthrie
+mageia(at)colin.guthr.ie
+http://colin.guthr.ie/
+
+Day Job:
+  Tribalogic Limited [http://www.tribalogic.net/]
+Open Source:
+  Mageia Contributor [http://www.mageia.org/]
+  PulseAudio Hacker [http://www.pulseaudio.org/]
+  Trac Hacker [http://trac.edgewall.org/]
+