Hello,
I am trying to package a program that expects to find its license file (COPYING) in /usr/share/%{name} to be able to show license text at runtime. However, standard practice is to install this file to the %doc directory in /usr/share/doc/%{name}-%{version}.
What would be a good way to solve this? Right now I can see 4 different ways and each of it has its flaws:
1) Symlink the file from /usr/share/%{name} to the standard %doc directory. This doesn't seem to be a good idea, because then runtime would depend on the presence of %doc marked items.
2) Patch the program in spec file to search the license text in /usr/share/doc/%{name}-%{version} instead. I wouldn't really like to carry a Fedora-specific patch in the RPM though.
3) Not to mark COPYING as %doc at all, and only install it in /usr/share/%{name}.
4) Install COPYING file in both directories, and only mark it as %doc in /usr/share/doc/%{name}-%{version}.
The review request and spec file of the package in question is here: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=powwow
On Thu, 2009-04-16 at 10:06 -0400, Tom "spot" Callaway wrote:
On 04/16/2009 10:04 AM, Kalev Lember wrote:
- Not to mark COPYING as %doc at all, and only install it in
/usr/share/%{name}.
I would do this. If the app requires it at runtime, it's not %doc.
You might even hardlink the file to both places, this would comfort those who look for the license in %docdir and not waste space for the majority of people where %docdir and %datadir are on the same volume.
Nils
On Thu, Apr 16, 2009 at 10:04 AM, Kalev Lember wrote:
Hello,
I am trying to package a program that expects to find its license file (COPYING) in /usr/share/%{name} to be able to show license text at runtime. However, standard practice is to install this file to the %doc directory in /usr/share/doc/%{name}-%{version}.
What would be a good way to solve this? Right now I can see 4 different ways and each of it has its flaws:
- Symlink the file from /usr/share/%{name} to the standard %doc
directory. This doesn't seem to be a good idea, because then runtime would depend on the presence of %doc marked items.
I would do it the other way around. Put the original file in /usr/share/%{name}, and they symlink will be in %{_docdir}/%{name}-%{version} pointing to /usr/share/%{name}/COPYING .
Orcan