Archive:PackagingDrafts/TeXNaming

Draft package naming guidelines for TeX and LaTeX add on packages

Background: the current situation

Currently, the (La)TeX stack included in Fedora is teTeX. However, upstream is unmaintained for some time now, and Jindrich Novy is planning to move over to packaging TeXLive as a replacement - see Releases/FeatureTexLive for details on this. Currently, (La)TeX add on packages are named tetex-foo, reflecting the fact that they are addon packages for teTeX. With the move to TeXLive, this no longer makes sense.

Proposal

One possibility, and the simplest, is to simply have extra (La)TeX packages called texlive-foo. However, it is usually (always?) the case that these add on packages are agnostic as to which (La)TeX distribution is in use - they simply install style files etc in the texmf tree. So, perhaps the following is a better way forward:

1. The TeXLive packages have virtual Provides: TeX, LaTeX 2. Add on packages are named tex-foo, if they are add ons for plain TeX, or latex-foo if they are add ons for LaTeX. 3. TeX add on packages have Requires: TeX and LaTeX add on packages have Requires: LaTeX

This would then allow the add on packages to work with other (La)TeX distributions installed on the system. For example, on might imagine a user installing a commercial LaTeX distribution, or tetex packages for compatibility. Of course, for this to work, these other TeX distribution packages would need to have have Provides: Tex, LaTeX. In the future we may move to another TeX distribution, and this avoids having to review the add on package names again.

A simpler solution: The addon packages are called tex-foo, and have a Requires: texlive

Another simpler solution would be to make no distinction between TeX and LaTeX add on packages. In that case texlive packages would have Provides: TeX, and the addons would have Requires: TeX