Overlapping tczs

[caminati]

What about the same file(s) being in several tczs?
For example, the same luxisr.ttf is contained in both Xorg-fonts.tcz and Xlibs.tcz.
To me, that sounds undesirable. Are there guidelines in this case?

[gerald_clark]

The symbolic link will be made only for the first package installed.

[Rich]

Hi caminati
I think it also comes down to trying to choose the lesser of two evils.
1. Do you choose to include a few files directly that already exist in other apps, or
2. Do you choose to make those other apps dependencies to have those files included.
Given a choice, in general, including a few small files sounds better than including a large dependency,
though there may be some exceptions. For example, the dependency is liable to be on a system anyway
because it is used by very many apps.

[caminati]

@Gerald: yes, I was thinking about tcz size. And to the fact that one using Core is likely a minimalist, and as such tending to pose such questions =)

@Rich: thanks, interesting points.

[Jason W]

I think in Arch Linux, and maybe others, that an overlapping file in two or more packages results in an unsuccessful installing of the latter package, and therefore that scenario is considered a bug when two or more packages share the same file in the filesystem. 

In a perfect world, that is how a shared system would be, no overlapping files, since overlapping files would result in file version conflicts. 

[caminati]

I think in Arch Linux, and maybe others, that an overlapping file in two or more packages results in an unsuccessful installing of the latter package, and therefore that scenario is considered a bug when two or more packages share the same file in the filesystem. 

This brings about a distinction: namespace overlapping versus content overlapping.
The mentioned case of is a content-wise overlapping, because the two luxisr.ttf are identical. It is not a case of namespace overlapping, since they also co-exist in the filesystem upon installation, by virtue of the fact they have different absolute paths.
Maybe the first case is more dangerous, however to me the second case is more aesthetically unpleasant =)
When the two cases simultaneously happen, the net effect is somehow mitigated.