[Fedora-packaging] one less binary package

[Toshio Kuratomi]

On Mon, May 05, 2014 at 09:54:10PM +0200, Daniel Pocock wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> My resiprocate package produces multiple binary packages
> 
> As of v1.9.x, one of the binary packages doesn't exist any more.  It is
> called resiprocate-b2bua
> 
> Is it OK for me to release v1.9 (without the obsolete package) to F20?
> 
Strictly speaking I'd say no.  But you can make the case to FESCo [Fedora
Engineering Steering Committee] (note -- this list is where the FPC [Fedora
Packaging Committee] hangs out.  FESCo should be reading devel list and if
you're asking them a question formally, you should use their trac instance:
https://fedorahosted.org/fesco/) that 

Removing the package without a replacement breaks implicit "API" and so it
contravenes the update policy.  Do make the case to fesco, though.  If the
package isn't used much then there is a reasonable likelihood that fesco
would make an exception for it.

(Note that getting rid of the subpackage in F21+ is okay, though -- and feel
free to use the Obsoletes mentioned later to remove the package on systems
where the user has upgraded.)

> Is there anything I can do to have resiprocate-b2bua eliminated from F20
> as part of this update?
> 
You'd probably want to add an Obsolete of the subpackage in the main
package:

Obsoletes: resiprocate-b2bua 

That will get rid of the package on user's systems when the main package is
updated.  Be careful, though, ince you have no replacement, this will
remove it from systems where users may actually be using it.  If the user
reinstalls the old subpackage manually the main package with the Obsoletes
will re-remove the old subpackage again.  If the old version of
resiprocate-b2bua will not work with the new main package (say because
there's a shared library in the main package that has updated SONAME) then
you probably want this behaviour anyway.  If the two versions could work
together, then the Obsoletes (in F20) is something you could discuss with
FESCo as a way to mitigate the change for current users.

-Toshio
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