[Gambas-user] Re: Package Wizard - Debian Packages

[José L. Redrejo Rodríguez]

El mié, 02 Feb 2005 13:43:53 +0000, Dave sharples
<technoferret at ...598...> escribió:

> I've been thinking,
> 
> I have been playing with Gambas for about 6 months being a linux convert
> who used to use VB. I have discovered that there is still a problem with
> the Package Wizard when it comes to creating .deb files for install on a
> Debian based system. This is fustrating me and 'scratching my itch'
> 
> I have narrowed the problem down to the fact that the Wizard creates an
> RPM and then uses alien to convert it to a .deb file. Whilst this does
> create the required .deb file It does introduce a few problems, least of
> which is that it doesn't create the control file correctly (e.g. it
> doesn't list the dependancies correctly, or at all). This could be down
> to the limitations of alien, I'm not sure.
> Having examined the code of Package.module I think a better way of
> making the .deb would be to use 'dpkg --build', i.e.the debian method.
> This would create a genuine debian package rather than a substitute one.
> 
> As dpkg will work as a user this would mean that Gambas's would no
> longer be dependant on fakeroot (unless its called elsewhere), though it
> would make it dependant on dpkg.
> 
> What I really want to know is SHOULD I CONTRIBUTE? by having a go at
> hacking the Package.module file around so that it creates .deb files the
> correct way. I'm not the worlds tidyest programmer, my code can
> sometimes be convaluted and theres no guarantee of my success but is it
> worth me having a go anyway or should I just explain the process to one
> of you 'coding gods' and leave you to it?
> 
> Also, if I have a go should I use the source from 1.0.3 or from the
> 1.9.x branch?.
> And can I compile and test 1.9.x from within the 1.0.3 IDE?
> 
> Dave
> 


I think it is not so hard to make what you want. The only problem I see
is that sometime ago , when I proposed such thing to Benoît he answered
that we wanted gambas making debian packages in Debian, but he also
wanted gambas making debian packages in Mandrake or Suse. So if you go
on with your idea, take it into account: you should detect the distro
and continue supporting alien packaging if you are not in Debian.

On the other hand, I have tested this ugly packaging with gambas and
works fine for me in Debian. The generated packages are not even close
to what an official debian package should be, even the text in the
control file is quite wrong, but they work when I install them in the
systems.

Anyway, if you want to do it, I will be very happy with that. Maybe you
could check the packages I have done at
http://forja.linex.org/project/showfiles.php?group_id=15&release_id=127
(for this application http://www.itais.net/index.php?blog=3) and at
http://forja.linex.org/projects/usuarioscentros/). In both cases, they
are correctly hand made packages for gambas applications. The only thing
they need to become totally policy compatible is the man page for the
applications. You can download there the deb, source and description
files.

Cheers