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Re: lsb-printing dropped

On 02/13/2016 08:36 PM, Didier 'OdyX' Raboud wrote:

As mentionned in the rationale mails above (as src:lsb package
maintainer), I think these compatibility packages were carrying the
wrong message, and that's why I've removed them. This /de facto/ means
there's no way to build rpm+deb distribution-independent packages (that
would work on Debian/Ubuntu) through the lsb-* compatibility packages.

So the short answer to this question above is "no". The longer answer is
that packages targetted at Debian/Ubuntu (and that is; *.deb packages
are almost always targetted at Debian, Ubuntu or derivatives of either)
should have proper dependencies on what they _really_ need. For these
packages, this probably means "Enhances: cups" and "Depends: libc6 (>=
$someVersion)". Some of these packages could need an additional
"Depends: libcups{2,filters1,image2}", which should really be determined
at build-time by these packages.

Although that's not the direct point behind dropping the lsb-*
compatibility packages, their disappearance from Debian/Ubuntu can
certainly be seen as the perfect occasion to set a new standard (as
"Debian and Ubuntu releases post-2015") for distribution-agnostic *.deb
packages to depend on.
With Debian's exit from the LSB and also seeing the degree of complexity of the LSB I am considering it dead now. 

For printer drivers I promote at first IPP Everywhere, driverless printing.
If a driver is still needed for legacy printers or manufacturers who do not want to participate in IPP Everywhere I am looking into a new more simple concept of distribution-independent packages. It can be still made use of alien to get both RPM and Debian packages as easy as possible, but the executables should statically link most of the libs to easily integrate in all distros (see discussion on OpenPrinting's printing-architecture mailing list).
As an interim solution for Ubuntu, I will add a simple meta package (no binaries, some scripts, only dependencies) to make the LSB printer driver packages stll work. Probably this measure I will apply only to 16.04 and no further version of Ubuntu. 

   Till
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