Re: [Opensync-devel] Updating debian unstable

[deloptes <del...@ya...>]

Michael Banck wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> On Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 03:36:03AM -0400, Chris Frey wrote:
>> On Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 09:22:28AM +0200, Michael Banck wrote:
>> > It is not out of date, it is the currently released development
>> > release,
>> > as far as I know.  Also 0.22, is still in the stable release, it is not
>> > gone from Debian entirely, just from testing/unstable. (There was talk
>> > about reviving 0.22 just for the python plugins, which apparently seem
>> > to work well for some people still, but I did not get around it so far,
>> > and with the freeze in effect I doubt it is doable)
>> 
>> If 0.22 could return to Squeeze, that would be great.  Let me know
>> how I can help, because that would make my life easier.
> 
> I have now made the case of reverting to 0.22 to the Debian release
> team, let's see whether they accept this.  I believe those are the
> main issues currently:
> 
> 1. The syncml plugin 0.22 version is not ported to libsyncml-0.5.4.  So
> unless somebody ports it, it will have to be dropped.

I am heavy debian user and I know they will have somewhere backported apps
in repository for installation, so I don't think it is really an issue.

To be honest if you miss a train you probably get late for where you are
going, so I think opensync missed the train for the next debian stable
already. Nevertheless I personally want to be finally able to sync my
desktop somewhen in the future, so I would put some time into makeing it
possible for at least the future stable and testing. If we have 0.40 in
next testing what is now sid, I hope more people would use it and report
problems.

I don't see issues with the engine itself, but rather as someone mentioned
in the known formats and in the plugins. I'm not sure which version was
referred but from what I've seen until now it is working pretty well at
least for the contacts in kde 4.5/6. 

> 
> 2. The google-calendar plugin crashes if changes have been made in the
> other member.  This is ticket #750, which maybe only applies to a
> google-calendar plugin ported to 4suite XML (Debian and Ubuntu have
> dropped python-xml, so it had to be ported).  I found out that earlier
> versions (0.x) of 4suite worked fine, see my analysis here:
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=468601#25
> But I guess this will have to be fixed on the google-calendar side.  The
> 4suite port is also in that bug report to look at.
> 
> 3. I had issues with the evolution plugin where changes made in its
> addressbook were not reported to the engine.  I have not investigated
> this in detail.

I opened a bug for this, because I wanted to use it for testing the
akonadi-plugin. It made me sick why it was not reporting changes or deletes
so I looked into the code and found the issue. I think it is severe bug and
the plugin will not work for syncing. If it has the same logic in 0.22 or
0.39 probably it is not working as well.

> 
>> > We could package subversion snapshots as well, but for the first part
>> > of 2010, I was not aware of any major advances in opensync which would
>> > have warranted that.
>> 
>> I think it is less about progress made or not, and more about having an
>> automated system for creating binary packages for people who just want
>> to run a quick test and help developers.
> 
> Automatic building and uploading does not really work well with Debian,
> uploads are supposed to happen manually.  Also, the opensync API has
> still been changing and packages might be broken more than working.  It
> would make more sense to have more regular releases of opensync, in my
> opinion.
> 
> Once squeeze is out and 0.4x packages work somewhat reliably, I can
> upload backports of them for squeeze users to enjoy.
> 

I was thinking to create a debian dir and introduce it to the other opensync
members. The build process is somehow trivial for (most) of them that I
have already compiled.

osynctool --listplugins
Available plugins:
syncml-http-server
syncml-http-client
syncml-obex-client
file-sync
evo2-sync
akonadi-sync


For now filesync is working very well with akonadi and contacts. I'm planing
to start testing syncml with akonadi in few days. I could try fixing the
evo2 plugin too, but ATM I have too many business projects open and no time
to learn the evo api also my C/C++ experience is not at high professional
level. In this concern I also think we need better API documentation but it
is not related to debian or stability. It would just help doing things
faster.

So to sum up I think it is better to test squeeze with 0.22 and members from
backports and to see what needs to be done. If it's too much then leave it
or patch the old libsyncml. Unfortunately I'm not planning to use squeeze
but rather stay on what will be testing next, so I'm not interested in
doing anything for squeeze. If you need a good desktop then debian testing
is the best (my humbled opinion). Squeeze is problematic to me because of
the kde release.

Thanks for the discussion as I think it's _finally_ time to have linux
syncable with mobiles and sort this topic out.

regards