blueproximity-packaging

[Lars F. <lar...@gm...>]

Hi everybody,

thanks for helping me getting BlueProximity distributed into the many
different linux distros. I created this list as I got more and more
mails regarding source changes so packaging for distro x would be
easier. Therefore I thought it might be a good idea to get all packagers
together so we can all help and learn from each other.

You might have noticed much action in SVN and releasing over the last
week. That was mainly because I tried to push the package into Ubuntu
which is my desktop distro. I have learned packaging 'the hard way' - it
took 14 uploads to make the Ubuntu 'Masters of the Universe' happy with
my build.
The result is that version 1.2.4 is now included into Ubuntu Hardy
Heron. I'll try to get it backported to Gutsy and Feisty too.

As many came up with the question what the dist_path is all about: I
have to access certain files, mostly the icons and translation files and
must address them directly via the path. Since I don't know where people
untar the tarball to I created the 'start_proximity.sh' start script
which should be called from the working directory of BlueProximity's
tarball. The path for the files therefore can be simply set to
'./some/path' and the prefix is './'. At distribution packages the path
to the files is (somewhat) fixed and set to the final directory by the
packager. Ubuntu/Debian does that by applying patches to the original
source tarball. I think gentoo does that too.
Since the location is fixed I can include a working .desktop file in the
Ubuntu version. That's why these files have not been in the tarball so
far. If patching the source is not possible at your distribution we
should find a different solution. If you need that file take it from the
.deb file please.
The newest release 1.2.4 tarball already includes the GPL license as the
file 'COPYING' which seems to be a reasonable standard. Your packaging
might include adding a list of authors and contributors. There is no
such file in the tarball yet but the .deb file includes one
(/debian/copyright)
The dependencies should be set as low as possible for proper
backporting. I can't really say which versions are needed but (as usual)
I refer to the .deb file which has the dependencies in /debian/control
including the versions of the dependencies which are set to my feisty's
versions as it runs there smoothly. It might be able to run with even
lower versions - truly - I don't know. If you can check that on your
distribution please check. If your version is lower than the one in the
.deb file please let me know so I can change that in the next release.

This should be it for now. If you have any questions regarding packaging
please do write to this list. I think it will be of interest for all of us.

Thanks again for porting efforts,
bye
Lars