[Ubuntu] GeoServer and GeoTools Debian/Ubuntu Packaging

[Jerome Villeneuve Larouche]

Hello,

My name is Jérôme and I'm currently working on a GSoC project to package 
differents GIS Softwares and one of goals this summer is working on 
packaging Java softwares like GeoServer and GeoTools.

I know there is already a GeoServer package, but it's not built in a way 
that would be accepted on Debian, that is why I want to create proper 
GeoServer and GeoTools packages.

I don't have a lot of experience developing and building Java 
applications so what I've found is maybe wrong so feel free to correct me.

I've been looking into GeoTools first since the majority of Java GIS 
softwares depends on it. From what I can see, GeoTools is composed of 
many modules(100+) which are all independent jars. After that I've 
started listing every dependencies that would need packaging or 
repackaging for the right version or to be compatiable with 
Maven-Debian-Helper. Since the list is pretty big, I thought I could 
start by only packaging some modules. That's why I looked into which 
modules GeoServer needed.

I also tried to manually build only single modules independently. It 
works, but from what I understand they still get all the dependencies 
from the main "pom.xml", are they all needed?

It seems GeoServer is still using many modules. So, would it be possible 
to create a Basic GeoServer with only a small part of the dependencies?

I've been told that JAI could be a problem, but it seems to be packaged 
in Ubuntu's multiverse and Debian non-free. That would make any packages 
depending on it non-free, but I don't think this is too much of a problem.
I was also wondering if there could be any other problem with license 
and redistribution?

These are pretty much all the questions I have for now, I might need 
your help again in the future as I advance.

Thank you
Jérôme

-- 
Jérôme Villeneuve Larouche
www.mapgears.com