[arch-general] Question about packaging a library (AUR)

[Eli Schwartz]

On 7/21/20 12:16 PM, Aneesh Raghavan via arch-general wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 21, 2020 at 8:25 AM Dominik Schrempf via arch-general
> <arch-general at archlinux.org> wrote:
>> I tried to provide the videosection library in /usr/lib, but that doesn't work.
>> I don't feel comfortable providing the library in /usr/bin. Do you know an
>> appropriate way to deal with such cases? Is it preferable to install the
>> executable in a separate folder alongside the library? For example,
>> /opt/transcribe?
> 
> Hello,
> Although I don't know much about this package and it's libraries, I
> believe an ideal way to put the libraries together is to have
> transcribe in a seperate folder with all of the libraries, while there
> are symlinks in /usr/bin and /usr/lib to the libraries.I hope this
> helps

That might *work*, but I would not describe it as *ideal*.

Dominik,

If this library is indeed a plugin specific to the "transcribe" program,
it's traditional for programs to have a special plugins directory e.g.
/usr/lib/transcribe/ and attempt to load *.so plugins from there. If
it's generally usable by other programs, then it would be appropriate to
have it in the general-purpose /usr/lib directory. If it's generally
usable by gstreamer, then it would be appropriate to put it in the
directory /usr/lib/gstreamer-1.0, as specified by:
$ pkg-config gstreamer-1.0 --variable=pluginsdir

It's not an option to provide the library in /usr/bin, but a usable
workaround would be to symlink the binary in /usr/bin but install it in
/opt/transcribe/. Check to see if it correctly picks up the right
location, though. ;) You might need to create a wrapper script instead,
which invokes it without a symlink.


You may wish to clarify with upstream if it can use the more customary
location.

-- 
Eli Schwartz
Bug Wrangler and Trusted User

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