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+
+Information to packagers of XZ Utils
+====================================
+
+ 0. Preface
+ 1. Package naming
+ 2. Package description
+ 3. License
+ 4. configure options
+ 5. Additional documentation
+ 6. Extra files
+ 7. Installing XZ Utils and LZMA Utils in parallel
+ 8. Example
+
+
+0. Preface
+----------
+
+ This document is meant for people who create and maintain XZ Utils
+ packages for operating system distributions. The focus is on GNU/Linux
+ systems, but most things apply to other systems too.
+
+ While the standard "configure && make DESTDIR=$PKG install" should
+ give a pretty good package, there are some details which packagers
+ may want to tweak.
+
+ Packagers should also read the INSTALL file.
+
+
+1. Package naming
+-----------------
+
+ The preferred name for the XZ Utils package is "xz", because that's
+ the name of the upstream tarball. Naturally you may have good reasons
+ to use some other name; I won't get angry about it. ;-) It's just nice
+ to be able to point people to the correct package name without asking
+ what distro they have.
+
+ If your distro policy is to split things into small pieces, here is
+ one suggestion:
+
+ xz xz, xzdec, scripts (xzdiff, xzgrep, etc.), docs
+ xz-lzma lzma, unlzma, lzcat, lzgrep etc. symlinks and
+ lzmadec binary for compatibility with LZMA Utils
+ liblzma liblzma.so.*
+ liblzma-devel liblzma.so, liblzma.a, API headers
+
+
+2. Package description
+----------------------
+
+ Here is a suggestion which you may use as the package description.
+ If you can use only one-line description, pick only the first line.
+ Naturally, feel free to use some other description if you find it
+ better, and maybe send it to me too.
+
+ Library and command line tools for XZ and LZMA compressed files
+
+ XZ Utils provide a general purpose data compression library
+ and command line tools. The native file format is the .xz
+ format, but also the legacy .lzma format is supported. The .xz
+ format supports multiple compression algorithms, of which LZMA2
+ is currently the primary algorithm. With typical files, XZ Utils
+ create about 30 % smaller files than gzip.
+
+ If you are splitting XZ Utils into multiple packages, here are some
+ suggestions for package descriptions:
+
+ xz:
+
+ Command line tools for XZ and LZMA compressed files
+
+ This package includes the xz compression tool and other command
+ line tools from XZ Utils. xz has command line syntax similar to
+ that of gzip. The native file format is the .xz format, but also
+ the legacy .lzma format is supported. The .xz format supports
+ multiple compression algorithms, of which LZMA2 is currently the
+ primary algorithm. With typical files, XZ Utils create about 30 %
+ smaller files than gzip.
+
+ Note that this package doesn't include the files needed for
+ LZMA Utils 4.32.x compatibility. Install also the xz-lzma
+ package to make XZ Utils emulate LZMA Utils 4.32.x.
+
+ xz-lzma:
+
+ LZMA Utils emulation with XZ Utils
+
+ This package includes executables and symlinks to make
+ XZ Utils emulate lzma, unlzma, lzcat, and other command
+ line tools found from the legacy LZMA Utils 4.32.x package.
+
+ liblzma:
+
+ Library for XZ and LZMA compressed files
+
+ liblzma is a general purpose data compression library with
+ an API similar to that of zlib. liblzma supports multiple
+ algorithms, of which LZMA2 is currently the primary algorithm.
+ The native file format is .xz, but also the legacy .lzma
+ format and raw streams (no headers at all) are supported.
+
+ This package includes the shared library.
+
+ liblzma-devel:
+
+ Library for XZ and LZMA compressed files
+
+ This package includes the API headers, static library, and
+ other development files related to liblzma.
+
+
+3. License
+----------
+
+ If the package manager supports a license field, you probably should
+ put GPLv2+ there (GNU GPL v2 or later). The interesting parts of
+ XZ Utils are in the public domain, but some less important files
+ ending up into the binary package are under GPLv2+. So it is simplest
+ to just say GPLv2+ if you cannot specify "public domain and GPLv2+".
+
+ If you split XZ Utils into multiple packages as described earlier
+ in this file, liblzma and liblzma-dev packages will contain only
+ public domain code (from XZ Utils at least; compiler or linker may
+ add some third-party code, which may be copyrighted).
+
+
+4. configure options
+--------------------
+
+ Unless you are building a package for a distribution that is meant
+ only for embedded systems, don't use the following configure options:
+
+ --enable-debug
+ --enable-encoders (*)
+ --enable-decoders
+ --enable-match-finders
+ --enable-checks
+ --enable-small (*)
+ --disable-threads (*)
+ --disable-microlzma (*)
+ --disable-lzip-decoder (*)
+
+ (*) These are OK when building xzdec and lzmadec as described
+ in INSTALL.
+
+ xzdec and lzmadec don't provide any functionality that isn't already
+ available in the xz tool. Shipping xzdec and lzmadec without size
+ optimization and statically-linked liblzma isn't very useful. Doing
+ that would give users the xzdec man page, which may make it easier
+ for people to find out that such tools exists, but the executables
+ wouldn't have any advantage over the full-featured xz.
+
+
+5. Additional documentation
+---------------------------
+
+ "make install" copies some additional documentation to $docdir
+ (--docdir in configure). There is a copy of the GNU GPL v2, which
+ can be replaced with a symlink if your distro ships with shared
+ copies of the common license texts.
+
+ liblzma API is currently only documented using Doxygen tags in the
+ API headers. It hasn't been tested much how good results Doxygen
+ is able to make from the tags (e.g. Doxyfile might need tweaking,
+ the tagging may need to be improved etc.), so it might be simpler
+ to just let people read docs directly from the .h files for now,
+ and also save quite a bit in package size at the same time.
+
+
+6. Extra files
+--------------
+
+ The "extra" directory contains some small extra tools or other files.
+ The exact set of extra files can vary between XZ Utils releases. The
+ extra files have only limited use or they are too dangerous to be
+ put directly to $bindir (7z2lzma.sh is a good example, since it can
+ silently create corrupt output if certain conditions are not met).
+
+ If you feel like it, you may copy the extra directory under the doc
+ directory (e.g. /usr/share/doc/xz/extra). Maybe some people will find
+ them useful. However, most people needing these tools probably are
+ able to find them from the source package too.
+
+ The "debug" directory contains some tools that are useful only when
+ hacking on XZ Utils. Don't package these tools.
+
+
+7. Installing XZ Utils and LZMA Utils in parallel
+-------------------------------------------------
+
+ XZ Utils and LZMA Utils 4.32.x can be installed in parallel by
+ omitting the compatibility symlinks (lzma, unlzma, lzcat, lzgrep etc.)
+ from the XZ Utils package. It's probably a good idea to still package
+ the symlinks into a separate package so that users may choose if they
+ want to use XZ Utils or LZMA Utils for handling .lzma files.
+
+
+8. Example
+----------
+
+ Here is an example for i686 GNU/Linux that
+ - links xz and lzmainfo against shared liblzma;
+ - links size-optimized xzdec and lzmadec against static liblzma
+ while avoiding libpthread dependency;
+ - includes only shared liblzma in the final package; and
+ - copies also the "extra" directory to the package.
+
+ PKG=/tmp/xz-pkg
+ tar xf xz-x.y.z.tar.gz
+ cd xz-x.y.z
+ ./configure \
+ --prefix=/usr \
+ --disable-static \
+ --disable-xzdec \
+ --disable-lzmadec \
+ CFLAGS='-march=i686 -mtune=generic -O2'
+ make
+ make DESTDIR=$PKG install-strip
+ make clean
+ ./configure \
+ --prefix=/usr \
+ --disable-shared \
+ --disable-nls \
+ --disable-encoders \
+ --enable-small \
+ --disable-threads \
+ CFLAGS='-march=i686 -mtune=generic -Os'
+ make -C src/liblzma
+ make -C src/xzdec
+ make -C src/xzdec DESTDIR=$PKG install-strip
+ cp -a extra $PKG/usr/share/doc/xz
+