Re: Build Debian bin pkg from Ubunt scr pkg

Torsten Bronger writes:
 > 
 > There are already post-installation scripts, however, they don't
 > cover this.  So far, I only have been able to provide an
 > unconfigured RefDB.  See the README file in the debian/ directory
 > <http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~bronger/%2Bjunk/package-refdb-svn/annotate/head%3A/debian/README.Debian>.

Thanks for reminding me. I think I have perused this one before.

 > 
 > If it is possible, I suggest to rely on refdb-init instead of
 > providing a pre-installed configuration file.  A working refdb-init
 > would be very helpful.  Maybe it works already, but I don't know.
 > 
 > Theoretically, the features of refdb-init can be realised
 > interactively in the post-installation script although I dislike
 > programs prompting me after I installed them (so far, only *very*
 > few programs make use of this possibility on Ubuntu).
 > 

This is a good point as it breaks unattended installations/upgrades.

 > My idea was to have refdbd at least running, even if in a precarious
 > mode of operation.  The problem is that Debian's packaging tool
 > wants to start refdbd after the installation and if this fails, the
 > whole installation is marked to have failed.  It's okay if refdbd
 > doesn't do anything but emitting error messages if connected, but it
 > must run.
 > 

Do you know how PostgreSQL is installed on Debian? It is basically the
same two-step procedure if you do it from the sources, i.e. the
installation proper, followed by creating a database cluster, which is
a prerequisite to do anything useful with the server. If creating the
cluster is done after the package installation has finished, the RefDB
package should do just the same. In that case I'd have to make sure
the server starts even in the absence of the main database. It would
then return an error message to each client request stating this fact.

 > By the way, there are also other things to sort out.  For example,
 > generating the excellent RefDB documentation was a nightmare.  To my
 > surprise, dtdparse is not available on Ubuntu.

Surprising indeed.

 > Then, FOP simply
 > crashs.  I suspect a bug in the current FOP version, so we have to
 > wait for the next one and hope for the best.

I can't remember having any problems with FOP except that Java must be
allowed to allocate a boatload of memory. It might just be that FOP
0.95 needs even more memory than FOP 0.20. I'll look into this.

 >  And finally, I think
 > the Makefile connects to the Internet for the stylesheets (is this
 > correct?), however, this is blocked on Launchpad's servers.
 > 

This is a feature of the XSLT processor and depends on the installed
stylesheets and the contents of catalog files. You could tweak the
toolchain to make it use local copies, but then you'd have to have
them installed just in order to build the docs.

regards,
Markus

-- 
Markus Hoenicka
http://www.mhoenicka.de
AQ score 38

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