Hi Fabrizio, I have probably spent 100 or more hours on this problem, maybe much more. While Cmake *can* make debs, I do not think Cmake is the way to make debs for Kicad for Ubuntu and Debian.
I have outlined the work I am undertaking on the Kicad developer list previously--I can dig it up if you'd like, but my goal is to get a Ubuntu package that passes all the tests and is acceptable to Ubuntu developers for being mainlined into the official repos. This will not be accomplished very easily through Cmake deb files due to the integration that has been added to Kicad over the last year. One obvious case is Python. There are literally 30+ pages of documentation on how to build Ubuntu and Debian packages that refer to Python. In order to be accepted into mainline, we pretty much have to follow all that documentation. We have to follow two different sets of documentation, just for Python, because we both integrate an interpreter and provide a Python package. I appreciate your excitement to work on this, but I worry that you're jumping the gun a little bit. I'd really appreciate the help, but I want to make sure we're speaking the same language. As you are more interested in Debian than Ubuntu, you may want to start here: https://wiki.debian.org/HowToPackageForDebian Before you start reading the documentation, I'll warn you: there are many, many people over the years who have tried to make "simple installers" that will just take existing code and crank it out into a Debian-acceptable installer. This happens about every two years. They usually work great for simple projects, and very poorly for complicated projects. Even when they create a deb file, the deb file doesn't follow all the rules it takes to be included in the Debian project. That being said, there are merits to a "dumb deb builder" similar to checkinstall. I think Dick just created it. This provides a thin layer of metadata so you can ask the package manager about kicad files and it knows about them. This is an excellent thing, and very useful for one set of requirements. I don't think you can "grow" that into something that is acceptable for Debian/Ubuntu to include in mainstream, and I don't even know if that's something I recommend anyone distribute as a deb file, you know? If you give that deb file to someone else, I think there is little guarantee it'll actually work, due to dependencies. There are a whole lot of issues even beyond Python--for instance, our compile time branches. I previously solved this using multiple PPAs--set up one PPA, install "kicad", and you get GAL support. Setup another PPA, install "kicad", and you get Python support. After a few hours of reading and asking upstream folks about packaging, I found out this is also a no-no, and we should have multiple packages that conflict with each other using the control file. Additionally, the reason why you don't do install dependences from apt is because upstream is years and years old, and kicad's dependencies have changed since then. Adam Wolf Wayne and Layne, LLC On Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 3:11 AM, Fabrizio Tappero < [email protected]> wrote: > Hello, > I updated the script according to Dick's suggestion and added some > modifications in it for "yum" people so that we are now a bigger > family. I also uploaded it to the web: > http://www.kicad-pcb.org/display/KICAD/Download > > just a question, Dick, why don't we like "sudo apt-get build-dep > kicad"? you removed it. Shouldn't be better to have it there? just in > case in the future we add some libs, some apt-get guy detect it but we > do not update this script accordingly. > > Dick, thanks for the "make package" thing. I think it is great ! I > have done some googleing and noticed that for instance slackware Linux > does maintain a "recent" version (03/2013) of KiCad: > http://slackbuilds.org/result/?search=kicad&sv=14.0 > > Debian people do it too but it is 1.5 years old. I contacted the > maintainer but mail bounced back. > > There is also and unofficial Debian/Ubuntu apt-get repo that looks > very official and that we could use: > http://www.apt-get.org/ > > The question is kind of philosophical, who should maintain packages > and distribute open-source software? the developers of the software or > the guys doing Linux distros? > > Well guys, I think lots of progress on this subject has been made > since two weeks ago, I think cmake is the way to make .deb. I think > the script on the web is great for the people who want to compile. We > just need an additional step adding Adam's server in the equation? > > Adam, I'll have a look at Karl's stuff and contribute to the cmake but > first I'd like to fix all this .desktop files and especially this > icons issue. It seems to me that there is a little bit of a mess > there. > > Regards > Fabrizio > > > > > > > > > > On Thu, Oct 17, 2013 at 9:13 PM, Adam Wolf > <[email protected]> wrote: > > There have been some discussion in Debian land about changing how they > > package Python-y stuff, that will make a world of difference for me. It > > looks like it's going through, so there's light at the end of that tunnel > > too. > > > > Adam Wolf > > W&L > > > > > > On Thu, Oct 17, 2013 at 2:10 PM, Dick Hollenbeck <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> > >> > >> CMake now builds a primitive *.deb file on Ubuntu/Mint/Debian. > >> > >> > >> $ make package > >> > >> > >> It has no dependencies, so it about like using checkinstall. > >> > >> > >> Dick > >> > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > >> Post to : [email protected] > >> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > >> More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > > Post to : [email protected] > > Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > > More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp > > >
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