Re: [Refdb-devel] Re: [Refdb-users] ANN: RefDB RPM packages pulled, packagers wanted

[David N. <dav...@sw...>]

Markus Hoenicka wrote:

>David Nebauer writes:
> > From what I have observed 
> > of other packages, however, the daemon script is usually copied to the 
> > /etc/init.d directory by the standard install process.  I presume this 
> > involves a simple one-line copy command inserted into one of the make 
> > files.  If you can show me where this command would go I would make the 
> > alteration to my debian build system which would result in the 
> > subsequent deb package copying the daemon to /etc/init.d.
> > 
>
>Ok, I think now I've got it. You need to maintain your own source
>branch with the modifications required to install it on Debian. The
>required changes should indeed be fairly easy. The most convenient
>mechanism is the "install-data-local" hook which allows you to install
>a file wherever you like.
>
Actually, this turned out to be far easier than I thought.  There is a 
script supplied as part of the debhelper package that automates the 
whole daemon init file install and link configuration.  Very nice.

> > I was thinking of something simpler and just for the Debian install: I'd 
> > wget the html manual files from the refdb website and add a copy command 
> > to the build process that would install them as part of the debian 
> > package install.
> > 
>
>Well, if that is kosher, I'll take my time with moving the manual to
>XML.
>
>The Makefile modification depends on whether the HTML files are
>already available or whether you want the Makefile to retrieve the
>files. Assuming the files are available locally (the paths are wild
>guesses as I'm away from my Debian test box):
>
>docfiles = $(wildcard *.html)
>[...]
>install-data-local:
>	$(mkinstalldirs) /usr/doc/refdb
>	@for f in $(docfiles); do \
>		$(INSTALL_DATA) $$f /usr/doc/refdb/$$f; \
>	done
>  
>
Once again, this is all handled by a single helper script.  Another 
script integrates the doc files with debian's integrated 
help/documentation system (doc-base/dwww).  If only the documentation 
was clearer I'd find this stuff out a lot faster...

There is one further problem: the 'dos2unix' script supplied with refdb 
is going to conflict with an executable of the same name supplied by the 
'sysutils' package (actually, '/usr/bin/dos2unix' is a symlink to 
'/usr/bin/fromdos').  It was never a problem until now since refdb 
installed to '/usr/local/bin' while the sysutils version lives in 
'/usr/bin'.  Of course, since debian policy requires the debian version 
of refdb to install its scripts/binary files to '/usr/bin', the two 
files now clash.

There are a number of possible solutions:
1. I can always remove the 'dos2unix' and 'dos2unix.in' files and 
manually strip out any related plumbing in the relevant make files,
2. The build system could check the OS and not install the file if it 
detects a debian OS, or
3. Rename the script.

Of course, there may be other alternatives I haven't thought of.

What do you think?

Regards,
David.