[Fedora-packaging] Packaging mono - RFC

[Paul F. Johnson]

Hi,

Mono (and mono-packages) are currently packaged to %{_libdir} as per the
published guidelines for packaging.

There has been discussion, both recently and in the past, about moving
mono to .noarch packages and placing them in /usr/share. The rational
behind this is that .NET CIL is a non-architecture specific system which
calls on a central repository of dlls held within GAC. It is a shared
resource rather than a platform specific resource. It is also not a
traditional library (.so).

While there is no arguing that .so (and standard linux library files)
should remain in %{_libdir}, non-native libs should not live there; it
pollutes and causes problems elsewhere. Simple example, if you live on a
64 bit box and install a prebuilt 32 bit app, it will look for files
from GAC in /usr/lib. There is no guarantee that GAC will be found.

By placing files in /usr/share GAC can always be found.

Obviously this is in discussion now (which is why I've invited Andrew
Jorgensen from Novell to take part in the thread), but it would
certainly make more sense to have them as .noarch packages and
in /usr/share.

TTFN

Paul
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