[Ubuntu] Fwd: [Live-demo] Packaging and project re-organization

[Angelos Tzotsos]

Hi Andreas,

On 01/02/2014 11:37 AM, Andreas Tille wrote:
>> The third and "difficult" part is the deb packaging itself. Here we have
>> several possible paths:
>>
>> 1. Use all the standard tools in Debian packaging and create/update
>> packages on UbuntuGIS ppa.
> I personally would welcome if the packaging itself would happen in Debian
> GIS repository[1]
We have been using UbuntuGIS unstable as our base for some years now, 
mostly due to OSGeoLive being Xubuntu based. I am sure that if new 
packages get created, can be ported to DebianGIS.
Personally, I would have no objection if packaging happened at DebianGIS 
and we ported to UbuntuGIS next.
The issue here is that this call for packaging does not involve only the 
few maintainers of the OSGeoLive project but actually all the projects 
included in the DVD (more than 60). Half of those do not provide a deb 
for installation.
>> A VERY simple example to create a deb package is shown here:
>> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=910717
>> but usually more complex things are required so the complete guides can
>> be found here:
>> https://wiki.debian.org/IntroDebianPackaging
>> http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/
>> http://packaging.ubuntu.com/html/
> I would like to repeat my offer of sponsering GIS related packages I
> have offered in my "Sponsering of Blends"[2] effort which surely also
> involves giving hints to relevant packaging documentation in case of
> trouble.
Thank you for that
>
>> 2. Use helper programs to produce deb packages.
>> Recently I used this excellent tool for packaging/deployment:
>> https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm
>> https://github.com/jordansissel/fpm/wiki
>> http://goo.gl/sWs3Z
> I admit I'm quite reluctant about tools like this.  Without having ever
> tried I have serious doubt that you can create lintian clean packages
> once packaging might become non-trivial.  Creating trivial packages is
> easy with plain Debian tools and thus we end up with complex packaging
> which will most probably fail with fpm anyway.

We are trying to find a very simple way to create deb packages, since 
most developers do not have packaging experience. Until now we have 
installation shell scripts for all the projects which is simple and easy 
to follow. Unfortunately deb packaging is not that simple... So FPM is 
an ideal solution for us, even if the packages created have lintian issues.

>
>> ...
>> and we have a geoserver_2.4.3_all.deb file ready for us.
> Did you checked the changes file with lintian?  May be my suspiscion is
> wrong and I need to change my mind about this.
No I did not. Here, I believe convenience is important at least for the 
first steps of this effort.

>
> Kind regards
>
>          Andreas.
>
> [1] https://wiki.debian.org/DebianGis
> [2] https://wiki.debian.org/DebianPureBlends/SoB
>

This proposal could just become obsolete if we manage to find volunteers 
to do all the Debian packaging for 30+ projects the proper way. That 
would be awesome.

Best,
Angelos

-- 
Angelos Tzotsos
Remote Sensing Laboratory
National Technical University of Athens
http://users.ntua.gr/tzotsos