[maemo-developers] Packaging questions

[From: Graham Cobb]

On Tuesday 09 February 2010 14:29:14 Bernd Stramm wrote:
> On 09/02/10 08:29, Dave Neary wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Ajai Khattri wrote:
> >> OK, but Im curious: what would be an example of a package with multiple
> >> binaries?
> >
> > binutils, for example?
> > gcc has a few (c89&  c99 versions, for example)
> > textutils
> > openssh (scp, sftp, ssh, ...)
>
> git, imagemagick, mysql, ...

I think of it like this:

A single source package may generate multiple programs (normally related in 
some way). 

If the programs are grouped together such that if the user installs one they 
almost certainly also want another then they should go into the same binary 
package (this often occurs with programs and scripts which make use of them 
or set them up, for example).

On the other hand, if it is likely that the user may want one program without 
another, then they should go into different binary packages so that space is 
not wasted (and possible user confusion caused) by having both installed when 
you only want one.  A good example of that is openssh-server and 
openssh-client: in many cases you need one or the other, not both, so they 
are two different binary packages built from the same source package 
(openssh).  

Graham