en/glep/glep-0034.html

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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">GLEP:</th><td class="field-body">34</td>
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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Title:</th><td class="field-body">Per-Category metadata.xml Files</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Version:</th><td class="field-body">1.1</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Author:</th><td class="field-body">Ciaran McCreesh &lt;ciaranm&#32;&#97;t&#32;gentoo.org&gt;</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Last-Modified:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/xml/htdocs/proj/en/glep/glep-0034.txt?cvsroot=gentoo">2005/03/11 19:07:16</a></td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Status:</th><td class="field-body">Draft</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Type:</th><td class="field-body">Standards Track</td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Content-Type:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="glep-0012.html">text/x-rst</a></td>
</tr>
<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Created:</th><td class="field-body">03-March-2005</td>
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<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Post-Date:</th><td class="field-body">03-March-2005</td>
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<div class="contents topic" id="contents">
<p class="topic-title first"><a name="contents">Contents</a></p>
<ul class="simple">
<li><a class="reference" href="#abstract" id="id9" name="id9">Abstract</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#motivation" id="id10" name="id10">Motivation</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#specification" id="id11" name="id11">Specification</a><ul>
<li><a class="reference" href="#examples" id="id12" name="id12">Examples</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#implementation-requirements" id="id13" name="id13">Implementation Requirements</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#backwards-compatability" id="id14" name="id14">Backwards Compatability</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#references" id="id15" name="id15">References</a></li>
<li><a class="reference" href="#copyright" id="id16" name="id16">Copyright</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="abstract">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id9" name="abstract">Abstract</a></h1>
<p>A <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">metadata.xml</span></tt> file <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id6" id="id1" name="id1">[1]</a> is currently used to provide extra metadata
(long descriptions, herd and maintainer information) about a package. It
is proposed that these files also be used to describe the purpose of a
category.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="motivation">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id10" name="motivation">Motivation</a></h1>
<p>Category names are short and not entirely clear. Adding arbitrary length
long descriptions to categories would provide several advantages:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>It would clarify the meaning of categories for users, who may not be
aware of some of the abbreviations or acronyms we use.</li>
<li>With the use of XML <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">lang=&quot;&quot;</span></tt> attributes, it would allow for
additional non-English descriptions (simply using longer category names
would not allow this).</li>
<li>It would help developers better select a relevant category for their
package, rather than dumping everything into <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">sys-apps</span></tt> and
<tt class="literal"><span class="pre">app-misc</span></tt> as is done currently.</li>
<li>It would help illustrate which categories are too broad or badly defined
in scope, making any future category splits easier.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="section" id="specification">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id11" name="specification">Specification</a></h1>
<p>It is proposed that the existing <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">metadata.xml</span></tt> format <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id6" id="id2" name="id2">[1]</a> be used.
Even though XML sucks, there is already a framework in place for these
files.  The filename will be <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">blah-misc/metadata.xml</span></tt>. The character set
used shall be UTF-8 for consistency with GLEP 31 <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id7" id="id3" name="id3">[2]</a>.</p>
<p>A new top level <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">&lt;catmetadata&gt;</span></tt> element shall be added to the DTD to
distinguish category metadata elements from the existing <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">&lt;pkgmetadata&gt;</span></tt>
elements.</p>
<p>The existing <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">&lt;longdescription&gt;</span></tt> elements shall be used for
descriptions. The <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">lang</span></tt> attribute shall be used to indicate the human
language of the description -- all categories must have at least an
English (<tt class="literal"><span class="pre">en</span></tt>) description.</p>
<p>The <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">&lt;herd&gt;</span></tt> and <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">&lt;maintainer&gt;</span></tt> elements are not generally relevant at
the category level.</p>
<div class="section" id="examples">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id12" name="examples">Examples</a></h2>
<p>The <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">app-vim</span></tt> category could use a <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">metadata.xml</span></tt> file like the
following:</p>
<pre class="literal-block">
&lt;?xml version=&quot;1.0&quot; encoding=&quot;UTF-8&quot;?&gt;
&lt;!DOCTYPE catmetadata SYSTEM &quot;http://www.gentoo.org/dtd/metadata.dtd&quot;&gt;
&lt;catmetadata&gt;
        &lt;longdescription lang=&quot;en&quot;&gt;
            The app-vim category contains plugins and syntax file
            packages for the Vim text editor.
        &lt;/longdescription&gt;
        &lt;longdescription lang=&quot;de&quot;&gt;
            Die Kategorie app-vim enthält Plugins und Syntax-Pakete
            für den Vim Texteditor.
        &lt;/longdescription&gt;
&lt;/catmetadata&gt;
</pre>
</div>
<div class="section" id="implementation-requirements">
<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id13" name="implementation-requirements">Implementation Requirements</a></h2>
<p>The DTD file would need to be updated to include the <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">&lt;catmetadata&gt;</span></tt>
element.</p>
<p>A metadata file would have to be added to every category in the tree. This
could be done over a period of time.</p>
<p><tt class="literal"><span class="pre">repoman</span></tt> checks for category metadata files would not be necessary.</p>
<p>The &quot;packages.gentoo.org metadata&quot; bug <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id8" id="id4" name="id4">[3]</a> would need to be
updated to ask for category descriptions as well.</p>
<p>The metadata documentation <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id6" id="id5" name="id5">[1]</a> would require some additions.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="section" id="backwards-compatability">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id14" name="backwards-compatability">Backwards Compatability</a></h1>
<p>The metadata DTD will remain backwards compatible.</p>
<p>The category metadata files will need to be considered &quot;optional until
implemented&quot; rather than immediately becoming mandatory.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="references">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id15" name="references">References</a></h1>
<table class="footnote" frame="void" id="id6" rules="none">
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td class="label"><a name="id6">[1]</a></td><td><em>(<a class="fn-backref" href="#id1">1</a>, <a class="fn-backref" href="#id2">2</a>, <a class="fn-backref" href="#id5">3</a>)</em> Gentoo Metadata,
(<a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/handbook/handbook.xml?part=2&amp;chap=4">http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/handbook/handbook.xml?part=2&amp;chap=4</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table class="footnote" frame="void" id="id7" rules="none">
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id3" name="id7">[2]</a></td><td>GLEP 31: Character Sets for Portage Tree Items
(<a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep/glep-0031.html">http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep/glep-0031.html</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<table class="footnote" frame="void" id="id8" rules="none">
<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
<tbody valign="top">
<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id4" name="id8">[3]</a></td><td>Gentoo bug 66917
(<a class="reference" href="http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66917">http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66917</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<div class="section" id="copyright">
<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id16" name="copyright">Copyright</a></h1>
<p>This document has been placed in the public domain.</p>
<blockquote>
vim: set tw=74 fileencoding=utf-8 :</blockquote>
</div>
</div>

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1	g2boojum	1.1	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
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12			<title>GLEP 34 -- Per-Category metadata.xml Files</title>
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14			</head>
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17			width="100%" border="0">
18			<tr><td class="navicon" width="150" height="35">
19			<a href="http://www.gentoo.org/" title="Gentoo Linux Home Page">
20			<img src="http://www.gentoo.org/images/gentoo-new.gif" alt="[Gentoo]"
21			border="0" width="150" height="35" /></a></td>
22			<td class="textlinks" align="left">
23			[<b><a href="http://www.gentoo.org/">Gentoo Linux Home</a></b>]
24			[<b><a href="http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep">GLEP Index</a></b>]
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28			<table class="rfc2822 field-list" frame="void" rules="none">
29			<col class="field-name" />
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31			<tbody valign="top">
32			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">GLEP:</th><td class="field-body">34</td>
33			</tr>
34			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Title:</th><td class="field-body">Per-Category metadata.xml Files</td>
35			</tr>
36			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Version:</th><td class="field-body">1.1</td>
37			</tr>
38			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Author:</th><td class="field-body">Ciaran McCreesh <ciaranm at gentoo.org></td>
39			</tr>
40			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Last-Modified:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs/xml/htdocs/proj/en/glep/glep-0034.txt?cvsroot=gentoo">2005/03/11 19:07:16</a></td>
41			</tr>
42			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Status:</th><td class="field-body">Draft</td>
43			</tr>
44			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Type:</th><td class="field-body">Standards Track</td>
45			</tr>
46			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Content-Type:</th><td class="field-body"><a class="reference" href="glep-0012.html">text/x-rst</a></td>
47			</tr>
48			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Created:</th><td class="field-body">03-March-2005</td>
49			</tr>
50			<tr class="field"><th class="field-name">Post-Date:</th><td class="field-body">03-March-2005</td>
51			</tr>
52			</tbody>
53			</table>
54			<hr />
55			<div class="contents topic" id="contents">
56			<p class="topic-title first"><a name="contents">Contents</a></p>
57			<ul class="simple">
58			<li><a class="reference" href="#abstract" id="id9" name="id9">Abstract</a></li>
59			<li><a class="reference" href="#motivation" id="id10" name="id10">Motivation</a></li>
60			<li><a class="reference" href="#specification" id="id11" name="id11">Specification</a><ul>
61			<li><a class="reference" href="#examples" id="id12" name="id12">Examples</a></li>
62			<li><a class="reference" href="#implementation-requirements" id="id13" name="id13">Implementation Requirements</a></li>
63			</ul>
64			</li>
65			<li><a class="reference" href="#backwards-compatability" id="id14" name="id14">Backwards Compatability</a></li>
66			<li><a class="reference" href="#references" id="id15" name="id15">References</a></li>
67			<li><a class="reference" href="#copyright" id="id16" name="id16">Copyright</a></li>
68			</ul>
69			</div>
70			<div class="section" id="abstract">
71			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id9" name="abstract">Abstract</a></h1>
72			<p>A <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">metadata.xml</span></tt> file <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id6" id="id1" name="id1">[1]</a> is currently used to provide extra metadata
73			(long descriptions, herd and maintainer information) about a package. It
74			is proposed that these files also be used to describe the purpose of a
75			category.</p>
76			</div>
77			<div class="section" id="motivation">
78			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id10" name="motivation">Motivation</a></h1>
79			<p>Category names are short and not entirely clear. Adding arbitrary length
80			long descriptions to categories would provide several advantages:</p>
81			<ul class="simple">
82			<li>It would clarify the meaning of categories for users, who may not be
83			aware of some of the abbreviations or acronyms we use.</li>
84			<li>With the use of XML <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">lang=""</span></tt> attributes, it would allow for
85			additional non-English descriptions (simply using longer category names
86			would not allow this).</li>
87			<li>It would help developers better select a relevant category for their
88			package, rather than dumping everything into <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">sys-apps</span></tt> and
89			<tt class="literal"><span class="pre">app-misc</span></tt> as is done currently.</li>
90			<li>It would help illustrate which categories are too broad or badly defined
91			in scope, making any future category splits easier.</li>
92			</ul>
93			</div>
94			<div class="section" id="specification">
95			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id11" name="specification">Specification</a></h1>
96			<p>It is proposed that the existing <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">metadata.xml</span></tt> format <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id6" id="id2" name="id2">[1]</a> be used.
97			Even though XML sucks, there is already a framework in place for these
98			files. The filename will be <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">blah-misc/metadata.xml</span></tt>. The character set
99			used shall be UTF-8 for consistency with GLEP 31 <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id7" id="id3" name="id3">[2]</a>.</p>
100			<p>A new top level <tt class="literal"><span class="pre"><catmetadata></span></tt> element shall be added to the DTD to
101			distinguish category metadata elements from the existing <tt class="literal"><span class="pre"><pkgmetadata></span></tt>
102			elements.</p>
103			<p>The existing <tt class="literal"><span class="pre"><longdescription></span></tt> elements shall be used for
104			descriptions. The <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">lang</span></tt> attribute shall be used to indicate the human
105			language of the description -- all categories must have at least an
106			English (<tt class="literal"><span class="pre">en</span></tt>) description.</p>
107			<p>The <tt class="literal"><span class="pre"><herd></span></tt> and <tt class="literal"><span class="pre"><maintainer></span></tt> elements are not generally relevant at
108			the category level.</p>
109			<div class="section" id="examples">
110			<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id12" name="examples">Examples</a></h2>
111			<p>The <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">app-vim</span></tt> category could use a <tt class="literal"><span class="pre">metadata.xml</span></tt> file like the
112			following:</p>
113			<pre class="literal-block">
114			<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
115			<!DOCTYPE catmetadata SYSTEM "http://www.gentoo.org/dtd/metadata.dtd">
116			<catmetadata>
117			<longdescription lang="en">
118			The app-vim category contains plugins and syntax file
119			packages for the Vim text editor.
120			</longdescription>
121			<longdescription lang="de">
122			Die Kategorie app-vim enthält Plugins und Syntax-Pakete
123			für den Vim Texteditor.
124			</longdescription>
125			</catmetadata>
126			</pre>
127			</div>
128			<div class="section" id="implementation-requirements">
129			<h2><a class="toc-backref" href="#id13" name="implementation-requirements">Implementation Requirements</a></h2>
130			<p>The DTD file would need to be updated to include the <tt class="literal"><span class="pre"><catmetadata></span></tt>
131			element.</p>
132			<p>A metadata file would have to be added to every category in the tree. This
133			could be done over a period of time.</p>
134			<p><tt class="literal"><span class="pre">repoman</span></tt> checks for category metadata files would not be necessary.</p>
135			<p>The "packages.gentoo.org metadata" bug <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id8" id="id4" name="id4">[3]</a> would need to be
136			updated to ask for category descriptions as well.</p>
137			<p>The metadata documentation <a class="footnote-reference" href="#id6" id="id5" name="id5">[1]</a> would require some additions.</p>
138			</div>
139			</div>
140			<div class="section" id="backwards-compatability">
141			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id14" name="backwards-compatability">Backwards Compatability</a></h1>
142			<p>The metadata DTD will remain backwards compatible.</p>
143			<p>The category metadata files will need to be considered "optional until
144			implemented" rather than immediately becoming mandatory.</p>
145			</div>
146			<div class="section" id="references">
147			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id15" name="references">References</a></h1>
148			<table class="footnote" frame="void" id="id6" rules="none">
149			<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
150			<tbody valign="top">
151			<tr><td class="label"><a name="id6">[1]</a></td><td><em>(<a class="fn-backref" href="#id1">1</a>, <a class="fn-backref" href="#id2">2</a>, <a class="fn-backref" href="#id5">3</a>)</em> Gentoo Metadata,
152			(<a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/handbook/handbook.xml?part=2&chap=4">http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/devrel/handbook/handbook.xml?part=2&chap=4</a>)</td></tr>
153			</tbody>
154			</table>
155			<table class="footnote" frame="void" id="id7" rules="none">
156			<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
157			<tbody valign="top">
158			<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id3" name="id7">[2]</a></td><td>GLEP 31: Character Sets for Portage Tree Items
159			(<a class="reference" href="http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep/glep-0031.html">http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/glep/glep-0031.html</a>)</td></tr>
160			</tbody>
161			</table>
162			<table class="footnote" frame="void" id="id8" rules="none">
163			<colgroup><col class="label" /><col /></colgroup>
164			<tbody valign="top">
165			<tr><td class="label"><a class="fn-backref" href="#id4" name="id8">[3]</a></td><td>Gentoo bug 66917
166			(<a class="reference" href="http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66917">http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66917</a>)</td></tr>
167			</tbody>
168			</table>
169			</div>
170			<div class="section" id="copyright">
171			<h1><a class="toc-backref" href="#id16" name="copyright">Copyright</a></h1>
172			<p>This document has been placed in the public domain.</p>
173			<blockquote>
174			vim: set tw=74 fileencoding=utf-8 :</blockquote>
175			</div>
176			</div>
177
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