source vs data

[hircus]

Hi,

For the last stable release (1.65), separate src and data tarballs are made available, while for the current series of test releases, each version comes in a single tarball.

Would the final 1.80 release (or 2.0, etc.) come in separate tarballs, or a single one? I'm finalizing the Fedora packaging, and if Oolite will revert to separate data packaging, it would make sense to create separate packages for each so that one can be updated independently of the other. If not, a single source package (though the binaries can be split if necessary) is a better option.

Much thanks,

--
Michel

[JensAyton]

I don’t think we have an official policy decision on this, but throughout the test release series most updates (except some of the bug fix releases) have changed something in the data, so the separation hasn’t actually been useful.

I personally suspect this will continue to be the case (even if we split out the most obvious cases, like JS scripts whose version numbers are bumped with each release), so I’m in favour of sticking to a single package. An alternative would be delta updates of the data package, but maintaining that across the bumpy landscape of Linux installers and package managers sounds like a complete nightmare to me.