[ckan-dev] CKAN Debian Packaging Community Meetup

[Nils Toedtmann]

Hi *


[ James: i hope it's ok if i chip in here :-)  ]


Maintaining packages for different target systems is quite some work.

E.g. many interesting distributions do not come with all libraries CKAN
relies on, or with too old versions. In these cases one has to package
the missing libs without running into conflicts (e.g. CKAN requires
linxyz >= 2.0, but target distro only provides linxyz-1.5, and has other
packages which depend on linxyz <= 1.5). Therefore "one debian and one
rpm package" won't cut it. Instead, each distribution release might need
its own, slightly different set of additional library packages.

We currently do not have the capacity to do that. If we happened to
package for more targets ourselves, i assume ubuntu-current (11.04) and
debian stable came first.

That said, package maintenance could be a good task for volunteers.

So if one is familiar with debian or rpm-style packaging and wants to
help out, please come forward :-)

/nils.


On 21/09/11 07:50, Kimpe Marc wrote:
> As a user and not knowing a lot of the python environment, I like the  
> Debian packaging approach - certainly if you need to set up
> CKAN in a large organisation.
> 
> I have however two requests :
> 
> 1.  It would be nice to have also an rpm-packaging for Redhat(-like)  
> systems - Organisations tend to be very specific about supported  
> flavours and versions of OS.
> 
> 2.  Is it possible to stay independent from the minor revision of the  
> packages you rely on.
> e.g.  Right now the systems works great on ubuntu 10.4.03 LTS   
> (  pylons 0.9.7 ) but not on ubuntu 10.10 ( pylons 0.10 ).
> Coming from the Java world,  I find this very annoying and it reminds  
> me of my C-days long ago.
> Maybe a more stringent backward compatibility policy and dependency  
> checks in packaging might help ?
> Of course this shouldn't prevent the community from moving on with its  
> innovation,  just try to have a little more discipline in evaluating  
> options now that the installed base is growing.
> 
> I'm confident you'll find a nice solution for packaging and please  
> keep up the good work.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> 
> Marc
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 20 Sep 2011, at 18:58, James Gardner wrote:
> 
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I just wanted to let you know that I'm planning a community meetup  
>> this
>> Thursday at the slightly earlier time of 5pm UK time to discuss CKAN
>> packaging.
>>
>> For those of you that aren't already aware, since the Berlin OKCon in
>> June, CKAN has been available to install on Ubuntu 10.04LTS using  
>> Debian
>> packages. The whole process was described in a workshop whose notes  
>> are
>> still available at http://ckan.okfnpad.org/sprint-okcon-2011-wishlist
>> lines 63 onwards.
>>
>> We've been using Debian packages for various CKAN instances including
>> data.gov.uk since then and learned a few lessons about what works and
>> what doesn't and it would be great to hear your experiences too so  
>> that
>> we can design a new packaging approach that works even better.
>>
>> So far the following are all attending:
>>
>> Myself
>> Nils Toedtmann
>> Jan Kokoska
>> Max Ludwig
>>
>> with J. Félix Ontañón providing comments via email (since he can't  
>> make
>> the meeting).
>>
>> The agenda will be:
>>
>> * Summary of the existing packaging approach, its strengths and  
>> weaknesses
>> * Feedback of other people's experiences
>> * Discussion of proposed improvements including test integration
>>
>> Intended outcomes:
>>
>> * A preferred approach for deploying CKAN via packages
>> * A packaging workflow that supports the way CKAN is developed and  
>> used
>>
>> If you deploy your own CKAN instances or have expertise in Debian
>> packaging then it would be great if you could join us. Also if you  
>> know
>> anyone who is an Ubuntu package maintainer it would be great to have
>> CKAN included in the official Ubuntu repositories so that is something
>> we should work towards.
>>
>> If you'd like to join, please let me know your Skype ID via email by
>> 4:30pm UK time on Thursday or add your details to the pad below:
>>
>> http://ckan.okfnpad.org/meetup-2011-09-22
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> James
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> ckan-dev mailing list
>> ckan-dev at lists.okfn.org
>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/ckan-dev
> 


-- 
See http://nils.toedtmann.net/ for contact details.