#806957 should use packaged suitesparse instead of convenience copy

#806957#5
Date:
2015-12-03 13:29:08 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

The rmatrix/r-cran-matrix package uses a convenience copy of several
SuiteSparse libraries (AMD, CHOLMOD, COLAMD, SuiteSparse_config).

Per Debian Policy §4.13, such convenience copies should not be used, and
packaged libraries should be preferred (except where impossible).

In the present case, the src:suitesparse package already provides the 4
aforementioned libraries. It should therefore be used in place of the
convenience copies (unless I'm missing something that makes it impossible).

Cheers,

#806957#8
Date:
2015-12-03 13:54:08 UTC
From:
To:
Salut Seb,

On 3 December 2015 at 14:29, Sébastien Villemot wrote:
| Package: src:rmatrix
| Version: 1.2-3-1
| Severity: normal
|
| Dear Maintainer,
|
| The rmatrix/r-cran-matrix package uses a convenience copy of several
| SuiteSparse libraries (AMD, CHOLMOD, COLAMD, SuiteSparse_config).
|
| Per Debian Policy §4.13, such convenience copies should not be used, and
| packaged libraries should be preferred (except where impossible).
|
| In the present case, the src:suitesparse package already provides the 4
| aforementioned libraries. It should therefore be used in place of the
| convenience copies (unless I'm missing something that makes it impossible).

I agree with you on a theoretical level ("hey, wouldn't it be nice") but will
not do this from a practial, software-engineering standpoint as it is more
important to have a _key_ package of the R infrastructure built reliably and
identically on all platforms.

So I will not 'fork' this for Debian and differently just here.  This is an
upstream issue of _optionally_ relying on system libraries where present.
This can be done, and I helped e.g. Jelmer do just that by using system
libnlopt if it is found. Hence I am passing this on to upstream, and marking
it forwarded.

Amicalement,  Dirk




| Cheers,
|
| --
|  .''`.    Sébastien Villemot
| : :' :    Debian Developer
| `. `'     http://sebastien.villemot.name
|   `-      GPG Key: 4096R/381A7594
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