[arch-haskell] Fwd: gitit status update and why are deps needed for binaries

[Bastien Traverse]

Le 14/04/2015 02:20, Nicola Squartini a écrit :
> Solving the problem of pandoc and gitit binaries taking so much space,
> would require splitting the packages in two. Right now
> haskell-pandoc and haskell-gitit are packaged with binaries and
> modules inside, and the module part depend on all the other packages,
> including GHC. If we split each of them into two, say pandoc
> (binaries) and haskell-pandoc (modules), then you could just install
> the binaries without having to depend on GHC.

Thanks, that's the information I was looking for. I hadn't understood
that pandoc and gitit could be split in different parts from their
regular installation instructions. How does one do so?

Le 14/04/2015 14:10, Magnus Therning a écrit :
>>> The reasons we don't do that sort of splitting are two:
>>> [...]
>>> 2. splitting into -bin and -dev packages, like in Debian/Ubuntu/...,
>>> isn't the norm in Arch
>>
>> Maybe not -bin and -dev then, but something has to give. I didn't see
>> anything against it in the packaging standards. We can liaise with the
>> core team to find out the Arch-y way for this issue.
>
> We don't really have to include the core team at all.  ArchHaskell
> isn't an official part of Arch so we can do what we want.  However,
> following the path of least surprise would suggest we don't stray too
> far away from the Arch way.

I thought I had read a post from one Arch dev stating splitting in a
Debian-like fashion wasn't supported, but I cannot find it right now.
The closest I got is the "comparison with Debian" section of the wiki
[1] which says:
> Arch generally packages software libraries together with their header
> files, whereas in Debian header files have to be downloaded
> separately.

It also links to a forum thread exposing the very question of -dev
packages in Arch [2], where we can read:
> Arch does not split packages the way some other distributions do.
> Anything with '-dev' at the end will most often be found in the base
> package.

>>> 1. The tool that helps with packaging `clbrepo` doesn't support it,
>>> and most importantly
>>
>> Maybe it is a call for looking into such support. Haskell packages are
>> huge! There has to be a significant population of users which want a
>> lean & mean machine. It takes about 900 MiB of installation size for
>> haskell-conduit. Addressing this will help with adoption.
> 
> Patches are always welcome. :)

As much as I'd like to get the very few Haskell packages I need without
installing the whole platform, I appreciate Magnus' and Nicola's efforts
to maintain the two repos and understand this isn't a priority.

I can't provide patches because I'm not a programmer but I'll support
such an initiative with what else is needed.

[1]
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_compared_to_other_distributions#Debian_GNU.2FLinux
[2] https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=179481