[maemo-developers] Packaging questions

[From: Jeremiah Foster]

On Feb 10, 2010, at 9:02 AM, Ajai Khattri wrote:

> On Tue, 9 Feb 2010, Jeremiah Foster wrote:
> 
>> Exactly. Thanks for pointing this out Marius. Unless I am mistaken Ajai,
>> you were referring to building multiple *package* binaries, correct?
>> (Not multiple application/runtime binaries.)
> 
> Just to clarify with an example: when installing say, ruby, there is a 
> main binary but also additional binaries in the package (irb, etc) - those 
> should all be in the same package.
> 
> Things like MySQL or openssh have separate client and server tool so those 
> should be separate package.

Yes, I think these are good examples. 

I am going to agree completely with Graham's previous email: 

<quote>
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).  
</quote>


Jeremiah