[vorbis] RPM dependency rant

[Doug McNaught]

John Morton <jwm at plain.co.nz> writes:

> On Thursday 14 February 2002 18:01, Doug McNaught wrote:
> > So I'd like to try out rc3 (been a happy user of rc2 since it came
> > out).  I download the RPMS and try to do an upgrade, only to find that
> > libao and vorbis-tools depends on 'libcurl' and 'libasound' which are
> > not part of Red Hat 7.1 (looks like curl is in 7.2, but God knows
> > where to get libasound).
> 
> libcurl is part of the curl package. It's used by ogg123 to handle
> streaming, and it was necessary to have a recent version installed
> to build ogg123 last time I built it from source (I believe this has
> been acknowledged as a build bug, as streaming isn't necessary for
> most of what ogg123 does).

Right.  I ended up d/ling the source RPM from the curl homepage and
building it--no problems.

> libasound is the ALSA driver library interface, but I'm not sure
> whether it's for the pre0.5 or post0.5 version of ALSA - which is
> important, because the API is quite different between the two, and I
> think libao can be built for one or the other, but not both.

Yeah, real curve ball there.  Since stock Red Hat doesn't have ALSA,
why is it enabled in the libao RPM?

> Strictly speaking, you shouldn't _need_ those libraries, so you could force 
> the installation.

I don't like doing that if I can avoid it.  ;)

> > So it'd be really nice to have a note on the download page explaining
> > what system the RPMs are actually built for, and where to get the
> > nonstandard libraries that they depend on.
> 
> Hacking libao and the vorbis tools to fail gracefully when you try to use 
> capabilities that it's built for but lacks library support for would be good 
> (if it hasn't already been done). Then the optional libraries like libasound 
> could be drop from the dependency list entirely.

Makes sense.

Another nit--the libao RPM won't build because it tries to compile
against 'arts' by default.  For some really bizarro reason, the
include file that the arts plugin wants (artsc.h) is not included in
the stock RH 7.1 (or 7.2) RPM.  At least that's where I assume it
sbould be.  So with a little spec file hacking, I disabled arts, got
everything to build, and installed happily.

My only complaint (and it's a small one) is that what's distributed as
"Red Hat compatible" RPMS on the download page should actually install
on a stock RH system, which they don't.  I have to think that's
frustrating some potential users. 

-Doug

-- 
Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees.
   --T. J. Jackson, 1863

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