Re: Using GNU's install-info in Debian instead of dpkg's install-info

[Ian Zimmerman]

Karl> Hi Ian, (Did you bcc me?  I doubt I am on debian-dpkg :)

No, according to my records I To'd you :-)

Ian> For everyone here, the main problem seem to be the Debian vs. GNU
Ian> fork.  But for me, the main problem is the bugs.

Karl> Well, resolving the fork will presumably only help with being able
Karl> to then address the bugs to benefit the most people.

Right.  I have a hard time waiting for the merge to complete.

Ian> require every info file passed to install-info to contain the full
Ian> metadata, including INFO-DIR-SECTION.

Karl> Sounds good, in theory.
Karl> In practice, how many currently-installed info files lack
Karl> INFO-DIR-SECTION?  

Good question, and easy to answer with a simple script, at least relative
to the packages I have installed.  I'll do that within a few days.

Karl> What else do you think we should require?

Everything necessary for the installation of a menu entry.  I guess it's
all within INFO-DIR-ENTRY, isn't it?

Ian> The other way is to keep some kind of simple database on the side
Ian> which install-info first updates

Karl> Adding another database which has to be kept in sync (and which
Karl> inevitably will go out of sync and then has to be recovered from)
Karl> seems like more trouble to me, not less.

The idea is that it wouldn't be "another" one, but _the_ authoritative one
from which the visually formatted infodir file could always be re-derived.
It wouldn't be visible to end users, and packages would interact with it
through a narrow interface (ie. the revamped install-info).  So the chance
of it going somehow bad would be much, much smaller than with the visible
dir file.

Karl> Can you include address@hidden (and whatever on the Debian
Karl> side) in future mail?

Sure, and also including myself because Mail-Copies-To doesn't seem to be
operative on the list.

-- 
A true pessimist won't be discouraged by a little success.