[csw-maintainers] package naming conventions for addons to other packages

[Philip Brown]

On 10/29/10, Peter FELECAN <pfelecan at opencsw.org> wrote:
>
>> Are you volunteering to write the initial wording, or are you
>> requesting someone else draft it?
>
> Very simple:
>
> Do you, as an active foundation maintainer, agree to relive the current
> limit of packages name from the current 20 characters to the 256
> characters defined by the current packaging system?

It's NOT that simple.
That 256 char limit is for the "NAME" field.

We use that "NAME" field, as the normal "description" alongside the
"software name".
We should reserve at least SOME of that space, for the description.
Remember, the format is

NAME=softname - Brief Description of software goes here

*Also*...
I'm presuming that you also like strong correlation between "software
name" and "package name"

ie:  softwarename => CSWsoftwarename


If the CSWxxx field also has a limit of 256, that means we need to
limit our "softwarename" to be 253, just to be strictly correct.
But if the CSWxxx field has to be smaller... then guess what? either
the software name must be smaller, or you lose the strong correlation.

AAAAnnnd.... surprise... even in solaris 10, it has to be smaller than
256 chars. A *lot* smaller.



from pkginfo(4)
     PKG
   Abbreviation for the package being installed.
   ....
   The abbreviation is limited to a maximum  length  of  32 characters.

Which means that the "software name" can only be a maximum of 29
chars. presuming that you DO want to preserve "strong correlation".