Re: [architecture] Re: C-JDBC rpm

[David Walluck <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Emmanuel Cecchet wrote:

> Can we have separate binary packages for JDK 1.3 and JDK 1.4 with 
> different dependencies?

It's taken care of already. In the next RPM release, users of JDK 1.4 
will not have to download the additional jdbc-stdext RPM.

> Yes, this is optional, only for people who are using XAConnections or 
> a DataSource. But in this case, they usually have an application 
> server that already has the package.

Unless there is a way to split out the API (into separate jars), then I 
think that the package will still need to depend on JDBC as a whole.

> We are not using JMS at all in JGroups. Would it be ok to install 
> JGroups without JMS?

Again, the answer is similar to above. If the JGroups authors would 
split there API into two separate jars, then only one piece would depend 
on the non-free JMS, and the other part would be free.

I don't know if I, as the packager, should attempt this kind of thing. 
It is probably better left to upstream. There are *many* Java programs 
in the same situation. They themselves are under a free or open source 
license, but they have non-free dependencies. This essentially makes the 
entire project non-free, since we can't distribute the non-free 
dependecies even though we do distribute the free package which depends 
on them.

> This is an interesting issue, I CC to the ObjectWeb architecture 
> mailing list. We have a meeting of the college of architects this 
> Wednesday, we will discuss the issue and let you know the outcome.

For years we have never gotten a response from Sun, although I am sure 
they'd be more likely to listen if we had a lawyer approach them, but we 
are only volunteers and we don't employ our own lawyer. Anyway, there 
could be a problem with the jonas in the repository. I only saw this 
once I tried to maintaim the package myself (previously Goulven Le Jeune 
had been maintaining it and he was probably not aware of the issue, and 
maybe no one else noticed it either).

Keep in mind other popular apps like tomcat are in the same situation.

--
Sincerely,

David Walluck
<david@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

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