README for pidgin-dev - How to package Pidgin plugins
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First, let me explain the current Pidgin versioning scheme (as of 1.0.0):
Every time the plugin API in pidgin is made backwards-incompatible with
previous versions, the major version number (the first number before the .)
is incremented. So if currently in the pidgin 2.x series, the next
time the API will change such that plugins may need to be changed is 
at 3.0.0.

pidgin plugin packages should be named pidgin-<plugin name>, so for
Guifications, the package name should be pidgin-guifications. Plugin packages
should build-depend on pidgin-dev (>= minimum pidgin version required to
support plugin).  Normally the minimum version of pidgin-dev will just
be 2.0.0 for the 2.x series, or higher if the plugin uses a new function
introduced in a later version.

Plugin packages should also use dh_pidgin to set the correct dependencies
for the resulting package. dh_pidgin is included in the pidgin-dev package,
and can be used by making sure the Depends: field in the plugin package's 
debian/control file contains "${misc:Depends}", the Conflicts: field contains
"${misc:Conflicts}", as well as calling dh_pidgin from debian/rules, normally
in the install rule.

-- Ari Pollak <ari@debian.org>  25 Sep 2006
