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162 lines
7 KiB
Text
162 lines
7 KiB
Text
Packaging guidelines for GStreamer
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----------------------------------
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Here are some guidelines for people trying to package GStreamer.
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VERSIONS
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--------
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First of all, there are two concepts of version in GStreamer.
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The first is the source package version; it is either of the form
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x.y.z or x.y.z.n
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x is the major number, y is the minor number, z is the micro number, and
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n (if it exists) is the nano number.
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In the first case, it is an official release of GStreamer.
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In the second case, it is a cvs version tarball if n == 1, and a prerelease
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for the next version if n > 1.
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Source releases where y is even are considered "stable", and source releases
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where y is uneven are considered "unstable" or "development". This is similar
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to a lot of projects, including GLib and the kernel.
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The second version is an "interface" version, used in versioning tools, the
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library name, packages, GConf install paths, registry locations, and so on.
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It is of the form x.y
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Commonly, it is refered to as the "major/minor" number of GStreamer.
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In most cases it is the same as the one used in the source version; only
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when we are doing release candidates for a new major/minor source version do
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we manually force the major/minor to be the same as the one for the next
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new version. This is done to shake out bugs that can arise due to this change
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before we do an actual x.y.0 release.
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PARALLEL INSTALLABILITY
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-----------------------
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Versions of GStreamer with a different "interface" or major/minor version are
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supposed to be parallel-installable. If they're not then it's considered to
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be a bug.
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There are parallel-installable versions from the 0.6 set and onwards.
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In practice, this means that
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- libraries contain the major/minor version in their name
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- plugins are installed in a major/minor-versioned directory
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- include headers are installed in separate directories
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- registry is saved in major/minor-versioned locations
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- major/minor-versioned tools are installed, together with versioned man pages
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- non-versioned front-end tools are also installed, that call the
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versioned ones, and only depend on glib and popt.
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So, all parts of GStreamer are parallel-installable, EXCEPT for the
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non-versioned tools and man pages. However, only one of these sets needs
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to be present, and preferably the latest source version of them.
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PACKAGING
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---------
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To make packages of different major/minor versions parallel installable, the
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important part is to separate the package of the nonversioned tools and
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man pages, and make them usable for all the GStreamer library packages.
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We recommend putting the versioned binaries and man pages in the same package
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as the base GStreamer library.
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The base GStreamer library should require a version of the non-versioned tools,
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so that users can expect the non-versioned tools to be present in all cases,
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and our documentation agrees with the install.
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As for package names, we recommend the following system:
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- "gstreamer" as the base name should be used for the latest stable version
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of GStreamer.
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- "gstreamerxy" should be used for all other versions (older stable version,
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as well as current development version)
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As an example:
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- 0.7 is current development version, and 0.6 is latest stable version:
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"gstreamer" for 0.6 and "gstreamer07" for 0.7
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- 0.8.0 gets released:
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"gstreamer06" for 0.6, "gstreamer07" is kept for 0.7, and
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"gstreamer" for 0.8, where:
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- the 0.8 "gstreamer" package can now obsolete the 0.7 package
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- the 0.6 "gstreamer06" package can obsolete previous "gstreamer" packages
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with lower version/release
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This ensures that users who just want the latest stable version of GStreamer
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can just install the "gstreamer"-named set of packages, while automatic
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tools can still upgrade cleanly, maintaining compatibility for applications
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requiring older versions.
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This base named should be used for all GStreamer packages;
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for example gstreamer07-plugins is a package of plugins to work with
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the gstreamer07 base library package.
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SPLITTING OF PLUGIN PACKAGES
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----------------------------
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Since GStreamer can depend on, but isn't forced to depend on, more than
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40 additional libraries, choosing how to package these is a challenge
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compared to other projects.
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Three approaches have been used in the past. One was "one package per
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dependency library", so that users could choose exactly what functionality
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they want installed.
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A second one was "split according to functionality". This is more arbitrary.
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A third one, used by some distributors, is "put everything we want to ship
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in one big package".
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Packagers seem to agree that the first approach is too hard and users do not
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care this much about fine-grained control.
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We decided on a mix of 2) and 3); preferring to follow the base distribution's
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decision for the base -plugins package, then creating additional packages
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based on functionality.
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Plugins are put in -audio, -video, -dvd and -alsa packages. Also, some
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plugins are put in -extras- packages because they are distributed from a
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different location, are not as well maintained, have other issues, ...
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In the case of Fedora, for example, mp3 plugins are shipped in -extras-audio,
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and distributed on FreshRPMS or rpm.livna.org
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For Mandrake, for example, they would be shipped from PLF.
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Now, to make sure other packages can require functionality they need,
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virtual provides are added for plugin packages, combining the base gstreamer
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name with the name of the actual GStreamer plugin.
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Assuming 0.7, and the mad plugin, the package "gstreamer07-plugins-extra-audio"
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would virtual-provide "gstreamer07-mad". It would contain the file
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libgstmad.so in the correct directory.
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PACKAGING TIPS FOR RPMS
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-----------------------
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* use a define for the base package name for all GStreamer spec files:
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%define gstreamer gstreamer07
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* use a define for the major/minor version of the package:
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%define majorminor 0.7
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This ensures you can easily migrate your spec files when a new major/minor
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version is released.
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* always use the correctly versioned gst-register-x.y tool in post scripts
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that install plugins.
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It helps to create a define for this as well:
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%define register %{_bindir}/gst-register-%{majorminor} > /dev/null 2>&1
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* make each package that installs plugins have (pre) and (post) requires
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on the versioned register binary
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* make each package that installs plugins have a requires on the corresponding
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base plugins package
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* make sure that the nonversioned tools and man pages are put in a package
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that is named "gstreamer-tools" no matter what the major/minor version is.
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This way, the latest version of this package can be used for all previous
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major/minor packages. If you do not want this package twice, with different
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versions, then write your spec so that you don't package the tools for
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previous versions, and only for the latest version.
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* applications that require specific plugins to function should require
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the correct -plugins package, as well as any additional virtual provides
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they need to pull in.
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* stable releases can obsolete: the previous development releases to ensure
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they get removed when installing the new stable version.
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