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Date:      Tue, 9 Jul 2013 11:13:23 -0600
From:      Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com>
To:        Konstantin Belousov <kostikbel@gmail.com>
Cc:        freebsd-arch@freebsd.org, Gleb Smirnoff <glebius@freebsd.org>, Robert Millan <rmh@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: libutil in Debian
Message-ID:  <0657575A-BF3A-486F-9582-C01E0FD97E38@bsdimp.com>
In-Reply-To: <20130709165939.GP91021@kib.kiev.ua>
References:  <CAOfDtXN2fWQAyGNb_ifH9y=zHO%2BGGnSdWnD8C6BzWDTU_7rWFQ@mail.gmail.com> <20130709113553.GP67810@FreeBSD.org> <CAOfDtXOTqzF9=s%2BUv6%2BMoAu0nrmyGrxJz4xaSJYEfDzRvrKx8g@mail.gmail.com> <20130709165939.GP91021@kib.kiev.ua>

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On Jul 9, 2013, at 10:59 AM, Konstantin Belousov wrote:

> On Tue, Jul 09, 2013 at 05:05:00PM +0200, Robert Millan wrote:
>> Hi Gleb,
>>=20
>> 2013/7/9 Gleb Smirnoff <glebius@freebsd.org>:
>>> With all respect to GNU and Debian the libutil in BSD appeared in =
1988,
>>> and the fact that GNU has taken that name in 1996 isn't reason for =
BSD
>>> to change name.
>>=20
>> Thanks for pointing this out.
>>=20
>> Please note that my request is only based on practical grounds. It
>> shouldn't be interpreted as implying endorsement on Glibc's use of
>> libutil name.
>>=20
>> Historically, Glibc maintainer has been very difficult to deal with.
>> This has affected non-Linux ports of Glibc as well. In contrast,
>> FreeBSD community may or may not agree with proposals but is at least
>> open to discuss things. This (rather than "fairness") is the reason I
>> try to work things out here and not there.
>>=20
>> Please take it as a compliment rather than as offence :-)
>>=20
>>> Also, FreeBSD is just one of the BSD descendants, and all of them =
share
>>> the libutil.
>>=20
>> So, I take it that the change I'm proposing could have disruptive =
effects.
>>=20
>> I do think there are long-term advantages for FreeBSD and the other
>> BSD descendants in making it easy for their APIs to be deployed
>> elsewhere. I mean, in terms of portability.
>>=20
>> However I'm clearly biased so I'd rather not insist on this. I leave
>> it for you to judge.
>=20
> Renaming the libutil would break the ABI of the base system.
> If you are introducing new interfaces to the other systems, you
> can use a library name you find suitable.  But for the library
> which is linked with significant number of existing binaries,
> rename is not an easy option.

Can we use libmap.conf to create an alias for the new name on FreeBSD so =
that programs that link against libbsdutil, to pick an arbitrary name, =
can work and libbsdutil can be packaged for debian? This will allow =
things to be portable, while allowing repackaging by Debian.

Warner=



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