pdl package in focal omits PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT interface

[Ari Mujunen]

In bionic, pdl package (based on 2.019-5 upstream) had working PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT interface.

In focal, pdl package is based on 2.020-3 and upstream changed the generation of PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT interface to only happen if the build machine has libpgplot* libraries installed.

Thus in focal, the pdl package does not have PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT interface anymore.

(This seems to affect the Debian/testing pdl package, too, since it is based on 2.025 upstream version.)

The PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT interface generated (if libpgplot* libraries are installed build-time) apparently checks for the existence of libpgplot* libraries in the run-time machine, so it could well be included in the generated/packaged pdl package.

Could the future updates of pdl package in focal (and later) be built in an environment where libpgplot* libraries are installed and thus it would then include the PDL::Graphics::PGPLOT interface?

[Ed J (mohawk2)]

bionic's libpgplot-perl used libpgplot0, a partially-compatible replacement for PGPLOT based on Giza, instead of pgplot5. Nothing has changed since then. pdl should not bundle any pgplot or binaries, since that is not how packaging systems work. If one wants to use PGPLOT with pdl, then one should install libpgplot-perl.