Re: How to deal with packages having the same files

[Robert Elz <kre%munnari.OZ.AU@localhost>]

    Date:        Mon, 13 Jan 2020 21:33:34 +0000
    From:        Chavdar Ivanov <ci4ic4%gmail.com@localhost>
    Message-ID:  <CAG0OUxjUBmaOCpRr=-ZjhBcN3Eh2ts+AMrKd2DnTE0iTJ=JjOg%mail.gmail.com@localhost>


  |     comm -12 gcr/PLIST gnome-keyring/PLIST
  | share/GConf/gsettings/org.gnome.crypto.pgp.convert
  | share/glib-2.0/schemas/org.gnome.crypto.pgp.gschema.xml

So the file names are the same, which you said before, are the file
contents from the two packages the same (or quite similar) as well?

This smells to me very much like some other cases in the past, where
a config/setup file is needed by multiple different packages, but none
(upstream) can depend upon it already being installed on a system, so
they all simply include a copy, and install it in the standard place,
"to be helpful" (and so their software can use it).

No-one actually cares where the file comes from, everyone would be
happy with any installed copy, but everyone needs there to be a copy
installed.

The normal approach to dealing with this, I believe, is to split the
file(s) out to be a package of their own, delete them from every other
package (as in, stop them from being installed, and remove them from
the PLIST) and instead have those packages depend upon the new one (which
is nothing more than a mechanism to install the files).

This is all based upon the assumption that the files are essentially the
same (the distributed versions could be different versions) and that either
set is adequate for the needs of both (in this case) of the packages that
install them.

kre