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Revision as of 16:30, 3 July 2019 by Bcotton (talk | contribs) (Added Releng ticket and announcing)


Langpacks-core for i18n functionality

Summary

Add langpacks-core-* subpackages to langpacks for easier installation of minimal core i18n support for a language (locale, default font, and any default input-method if needed).

Owner

Current status

  • Targeted release: Fedora 31
  • Last updated: 2019-07-03
  • Tracker bug: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
  • Release notes tracker: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>

Detailed Description

In Fedora 30 we replaced the remaining Yum language-support groups in Comps by extending the langpacks meta packages to handle the installation of fonts (and input-methods) required for a language, in addition to locale and translation package weak dependencies. However this all or nothing approach can be too heavy for some use cases, since the old language-support groups did not pull in translation langpacks.

With this Change we want to refine the approach to allow finer-grained installation of language support. So users who only want basic support installed for a language (without translation langpacks and additional fonts for example) can install langpacks-core-XY to get just the default font, locale(s) and a weak dependency for any default input method.

Note: in this proposal XY stands just for the ISO language code (eg es for Spanish).

Users who want general default Fedora international support should continue to install @fonts, @input-methods, and glibc-all-langpacks (as they are already in Fedora Workstation, etc).

Later we may consider whether to separate the input methods into separate meta langpacks subpackages.

Benefit to Fedora

This allows more flexibility for users who want to do custom installations/Spins, or starting from minimal images/installs. They will be able to add basic i18n support for one or more specific language in a predictable standard way without pulling in additional langpacks for translations and extra fonts which may not be required for each added languages.

Users wanting full support for a language can continue to install the langpacks-XY package for their language.

Scope

  • Proposal owners:
    • Add langpacks-core-* subpackages to langpacks for core i18n functionality:
      • default font
      • glibc locale
      • weak dependency on ibus IME if needed
    • Other langpacks weak deps and additional fonts will remain in langpacks-XY.
    • langpacks-XY will require langpacks-core-XY.
    • glibc locales subpackages weak dependencies will be updated to depend on langpacks-core-XY
  • Other developers: No other changes should be needed - current package translation langpacks will continue to depend on langpacks-xx.
  • Release engineering: #8507
  • Policies and guidelines: No major changes here
  • Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)

Upgrade/compatibility impact

No impact - the design is fully backwards compatible: langpacks-XY will pull in the new langpacks-core-XY.

How To Test

  • dnf list langpacks-*
  • dnf install langpacks-core-XY
  • dnf install langpacks-XY

User Experience

Fedora users will have more flexibility with installation of i18n support packages and langpacks.

Dependencies

glibc.spec needs to be updated with s/langpacks/langpacks-core/ once langpacks has implemented langpacks-core.

No other packages should be directly affected by the current proposal.

Contingency Plan

  • Contingency mechanism: Proposal owners will revert to F30 langpacks and glibc
  • Contingency deadline: Beta freeze
  • Blocks release? No
  • Blocks product? N/A

Documentation

No additional documentation at this stage.

Release Notes