[Nix-dev] Re: [Nix-commits] SVN commit: nix - 21144 - astsmtl - in nixpkgs/trunk/pkgs: development/libraries/libmad top-level

[Ludovic Courtès]

Hi Alexander,

Alexander Tsamutali <astsmtl at yandex.ru> writes:

> You can view the changes in this commit at:
>    https://svn.nixos.org/viewvc/nix?rev=21144&view=rev
>
> Added:
>    nixpkgs/trunk/pkgs/development/libraries/libmad/pkgconfig.patch
> Modified:
>    nixpkgs/trunk/pkgs/development/libraries/libmad/default.nix
>    nixpkgs/trunk/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
>
> Log:
> libmad: Added patch to install mad.pc, stolen from Arch Linux.

[...]

> +--- libmad-0.15.1b.orig/mad.pc.in	1970-01-01 00:00:00.000000000 +0000
> ++++ libmad-0.15.1b/mad.pc.in	2005-08-25 12:08:04.000000000 +0000
> +@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
> ++prefix=@prefix@
> ++exec_prefix=@exec_prefix@
> ++libdir=@libdir@
> ++includedir=@includedir@
> ++
> ++Name: MAD
> ++Description: libmad - MPEG audio decoder library
> ++Version: @VERSION@
> ++Libs: -L${libdir} -lmad
> ++Cflags:

IMO it’s not the distribution’s job to add entirely new files to
software packages.  This patch should be submitted to the libmad
maintainers.  If/when they approve it, Nixpkgs and all other distros
will get it.

One of the undesirable side effects of such patches is that Nixpkgs
users can be fooled into thinking that ‘mad.pc’ is an upstream thing,
and write software that assumes its availability.

Thus I’d be in favor of removing it from Nixpkgs and submitting it
upstream.  What do you think?

Thanks,
Ludo’.