On Tue, Dec 16, 2003 at 02:42:33PM -0800, Michael K. Edwards wrote: > On Tuesday 16 December 2003 01:09 am, Sven Luther wrote: > > On Mon, Dec 15, 2003 at 01:30:01PM -0800, Michael K. Edwards wrote: > > > Sven - > > > > > > Fabio suggested that I contact you for help with packaging the Numerix > > > and Cryptokit OCaml libraries. (He and Peter are packaging the SKS > > > OpenPGP > > > > Cool. > > > > Please notice that there is also the debian-ocaml-maint mailing lists, > > where all the debian/ocaml maintainers and some other interested in > > packaging ocaml stuff in debian gather. You should consider joining > > there. > > Joined now, thanks. > > > > keyserver, which uses these libraries, and I wound up packaging the > > > libraries in the course of getting an SKS instance up.) I have attached > > > the e-mail I sent to Xavier Leroy (the Cryptokit upstream) offering him > > > my changes to > > > > And the ocaml upstream too. > > > > > Cryptokit to replace its use of the non-free Nat bignum library with > > > Numerix. > > > > Mmm, Xavier did already reimplement bignum in the CVS version. I am > > considering packaging it in experimental for now. Can you make use of > > that ? Also the copyright is actually in HP hands, and i asked Bdale to > > look into it. Sadly, he has not time, and the actual stuff seems to be > > lost in huge piles of paperwork inherited from Dec and then Compaq. > > The port to Numerix was easy enough, and gained 10-30% performance on RSA > operations on my test system; may be better on memory management scores as
Well, Xavier claims a 50% speed improvement of the new bignum library over the old one for athlon 64, pentium 4 and powerpc. > well, since I use in-place operations wherever feasible. I like the Numerix > API much better than the original Nat, and it has a good implementation of > a^b mod c (missing from Nat). I look forward to hearing from Xavier what he > thinks of my work. Yeah. > > > Preliminary numerix and cryptokit source packages are on http:// > > > www-static.sane.net/. I originally cribbed debian/rules, etc. from > > > extlib, but am now rewriting them based on your pcre-ocaml source > > > package. (It seems > > > > Well, it is more Stefano's package, but it is true that we currently > > co-maintain it. Also, there is the ocaml-pkg or whatever alioth project, > > which include the SVN repository where we are migrating our > > co-maintained packages to. > > Would that be an appropriate repository for cryptokit and numerix as well? Yeah sure. You don't even need to be a DD, just become a member of the alioth project. > > > best to use ocaml-findlibs, and hopefully the weirdness I am having with > > > > I personnally don't like findlibs, but indeed it is a good tool to use. > > I am open to other tools as well; I am new to OCaml and guessed that findlib > was the most common way of setting up shared libraries, etc. Please correct > me if that's incorrect. Well, i personnally prefer the good old manual way, but others disagree. > > > bytecode compilation of the ported cryptokit will go away.) Up until a > > > couple of days ago I had never used OCaml, so I could definitely use > > > packaging pointers. > > > > Did you read the ocaml-packaging-policy ? It is in the SVN repository, > > but also in /usr/lib/ocaml/3.07. > > I did read over it once, and will continue to consult it as I refine these > packages. Review by an experienced OCaml packager would also be appreciated. Ok. > > > IANADD, so I will also need an upload sponsor if these packages are to go > > > into the archive. Peter and Fabio have both expressed willingness, but > > > Fabio thought it would be good to have a sponsor who uses OCaml. I would > > > > Yep. Altough they still can sponsor the actual uploads, and we can give > > you counsel on packaging and everything. > > That sounds like a good way of dividing it up. Yep. > > > appreciate it very much if you would consider sponsoring. (My changes to > > > Cryptokit will obviously need some review before they are uploaded; the > > > upstream cryptokit can't go into main because it depends on non-free > > > parts that have been removed from ocaml, and it would be nice if > > > cryptokit and sks made it into sarge main.) > > > > You should have asked before. I believe that the API-identic > > reimplementation that is currently in the ocaml CVS should have been > > enough to not need your work, altough i don't really understand the > > issues involved here. I will do a ocaml-cvs package, and you can then > > try it out, and tell me more about it. > > The comparison will be interesting. It was a good OCaml learning exercise in > any case, and didn't take me long. Cool. > > > BTW, is cryptokit packaged, and if so, in which package does it belong ? > > IMO it should wind up in libcryptokit-ocaml and libcryptokit-ocaml-dev. The > upstream build doesn't seem to make shared libraries (which will be needed > for libcryptokit-ocaml AIUI), so I will need to do some rework. (I'm working Well, the shared libraries are only really needed if there is a dll.so, built from C stubs. I don't remember well if this is the case for cryptokit or if it is a native ocaml library. > on the Numerix packages now, which will include libnumerix and libnumerix-dev > (C interface) as well as libnumerix-ocaml and libnumerix-ocaml-dev. Ok, cool. Friendly, Sven Luther
