[ANNOUNCEMENT] Changes in libtool packaging

[Charles Wilson]

Synopsis
========================================
libtool1.5 packages are now 'libtool' (current)
libtool2.2 packages are now 'libtool' (testing)
libltdl3 (the runtime library from libtool-1.5) is unchanged
libltdl7 (the runtime library from libtool-2.2) is unchanged

Required User Action
========================================
Hopefully, none. The next time you run setup, both libtool1.5 and 
libtool2.2 will be smoothly updated to (a single) version of the new 
'libtool' package. By default, this will be one derived from the 
libtool-1.5.x series, unless you choose 'testing'.

Explanation
========================================
In the past, to support multiple, simultaneously installed versions of 
the autotools, these packages' names were modified to indicate their 
versions.  That is,

autoconf2.1-2.13-1   contained  autoconf-2.13
autoconf2.5-2.61-1   contained  autoconf-2.61
^^^^^^^^^^^
the package name. Note that in this case, because the autoconf-2.6x 
releases are compatible with the 2.5x releases, the package name is 
'autoconf2.5' even though the actual version number is 2.61.

Similarly, the automake packages:
automake1.4-1.4p6-1  contained  automake-1.4-pre6
automake1.9-1.9.6-1  contained  automake-1.9.6
^^^^^^^^^^^
the package name.

The autoconf and automake packages have not been changed, and will 
continue the practice described above.

However, for the last several years, libtool has been distributed as

libtool1.5-1.5.23a-1  which contains libtool-1.5.23(alpha)
^^^^^^^^^^
the package name.

This was in the (vain) hope that when libtool-2.0 (or -2.2) was 
released, cygwin could support the simultaneous installation of multiple 
versions of libtool.  However, as there WAS no official libtool-2.x 
release, the issue was moot.

Now that the upstream libtool maintainers have produced an official 
libtool-2.2 release, it has become apparent that
   (1) libtool-1.5 and libtool-2.2 cannot both be installed on the same 
machine, in the same --prefix, at the same time.
   (2) this is not likely to change before libtool-3.0 if even then
   (3) therefore, cygwin's libtool-1.5 and libtool-2.2 -derived packages 
"conflict"
   (4) cygwin's setup.exe does not known how to manage 'conflicting' 
packages

Therefore, to cleanly handle these issues, the libtoolX.Y packages have 
been renamed, to plain 'libtool'.  Because cygwin's setup.exe will only 
allow a single version of a particular package installed at one time, 
this handles the 'conflict' between libtool-1.5 and libtool-2.2: only 
one can be installed at a time.

There should be no user-impact to these changes; setup.exe should 
smoothly handle the 'upgrade' from the obsoleted 'libtool1.5' and 
'libtool2.2' packages to the new 'libtool' ones.

Future plans
========================================
For the near term, the libtool-1.5.x-derived versions of libtool will be 
'current'.  libtool-2.2.x-derived versions of libtool will be available 
as 'test' releases.

In the medium term, the libtool-1.5.x-derived versions of libtool will 
be available under 'prev', while both 'current' and 'test' categories 
will be libtool-2.2.x-derived.

In the long term, the official prev/curr/test 'slots' will all be 
libtool-2.2.x-derived.  libtool-1.5.x-derived versions of libtool will 
only be available via setup.exe by directly clicking on the version 
number in the Chooser, until the desired version appears.

--
Chuck


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