Dear Adam, Thank you for your lengthy e-mail. "jumping the gun" isn't my intention. Also, I would not really say that I am particularly excited about working on this. I just had some time and thought of improving things a little.
We certainly speak the same language, if you want take your time and decide what to do, please do it, I am certainly not in a hurry on this. Cheers Fabrizio On Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 3:03 PM, Adam Wolf <[email protected]> wrote: > 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 >> > > > _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
