GDAL 1.7.3 / Java software and repos (was Re: [El] imageio-ext)

[Mathieu Baudier]

Hi Ralph,

> Here I'm submitting

thanks a lot for this effort!

Now, I would like to take a step back in order to better understand
all that was produced and see how and where we can integrate this.

1. GDAL 1.7.3
It is not clear to me which spec file / SRPM would build against EL 5 / EPEL 5.
Can you please point us to it?

We need a GDAL package that does not require to update the base OS.
Is it ok?
Do we now need additional repos (JPP?) for GDAL?

> - the mock config I used (/etc/mock/elgis-5-jpp-testing-i386.cfg)

2. I had a quick look at your mock config file and I have a few questions:

- why is there JPP 5 and JPP 6?
- does including JPP (esp. the -devel) mean that we upgrade part of the base OS?
- what is your "custom" repo? was it only for your intermediary builds?

> - the spec I used

I would suggest the follwoing approach:
- let's first have a proper GDAL 1.7.3 package (maybe we will have to
split it, in order to keep a "core" with limited dependencies)
- then let's discuss how we can manage the additional JPP repos.
- then start integrating the complex JNI dependencies (imageio, JAI, ...)

An approach could be to create yet another repo (elgis-jpp?), but this
would add complexity.
So maybe we should put all that in elgis-plus were we have maximal flexibility.

If the JPP used does not upgrade base (see my questions above) then we
can discuss adding it has a required repo, in addition to EPEL. But
this may also make a first configuration more complex for a new user,
who would not necessarily be interested in Java software.

We could also rebuild and host all the required packages, but this
look like a huge piece of work, and doesn't feel right.

There is also the question of whether EPEL 5 would be interested in
taking all this over (EPEL 6 is in good hands with all the work that
Viji is currently putting into it, so there is no need for ELGIS to
focus on EL 6 from a packaging point of view).
My current understanding/feeling is that EPEL 5 would rather stay
"stable", and that the ELGIS repos are the place where we can play
around in order to support the latest GIS software on the EL 5
platform. But as already discussed, all possibilities are open.

Looking forward to comments/ideas...

Cheers,

Mathieu