[Ubuntu] GeoServer and GeoTools Debian/Ubuntu Packaging

[Jerome Villeneuve Larouche]

On 14-07-15 09:38 AM, Andreas Tille wrote:
> Hi Jérôme,
>
> On Mon, Jul 14, 2014 at 02:03:28PM -0400, Jerome Villeneuve Larouche wrote:
>> 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.
> Thanks for working on this.
>   
>> 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.
> +1
>
>> 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.
> I wonder why you think there is a bunch of jars.  When looking at
>
>    https://github.com/geotools/geotools/releases
>
> I can find release tarballs containing Java source code (only a few
> jahrs in the test suite).
>   
         What I mean is that when you build GeoTools, each modules make 
his own jar. I suppose the proper way would be to have one big GeoTools 
source Package that would create all the smaller module's packages. I'll 
have to look if ignoring the modules I don't need is complicated so I 
could ignore the unsupported one and build only those I would need for 
GeoServer for now.
>> 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 admit I do not have any experience what might be the best approach to
> this but if I were you I would consult the Debian Java list[1] to get
> some help.  I personally feel not competent to give some reasonable
> advise whether modularising the source tarball is the best
> straightforward approach to tackle this.
>
>> 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?
> It might make sense to modularise only the binary packages and build
> from the original source tarball.
>   
>> 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?
> See my other mail about this.
     I'm not sure I completely understand the non-free and DFSG stuff, 
I'll have to read the policy Bas linked. But I agree that dropping JAI 
for something newer might be a good idea.
>
>> These are pretty much all the questions I have for now, I might need
>> your help again in the future as I advance.
> Hope this helps
>
>        Andreas.
>
> [1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-java/
>

Thanks for the answers and tips :)

-- 
Jérôme Villeneuve Larouche
www.mapgears.com