[Refdb-users] Build Debian bin pkg from Ubunt scr pkg

[Stefan S. <ste...@ya...>]

Hallo!

Markus Hoenicka writes:

> Please have a look at the refdb-init script (also documented here:
> http://refdb.sourceforge.net/manual/ch04s08.html) which is a generic
> script that may or may not work out of the box on Debian.

Sigh ... big shame and a big RFM on me.  Installing software via
the Debian packaging system obviously made me lazy.

So I had a deeper look at the manual and - what a surprise - I seem to have succeeded:

After two minor modifications (see below) I seem to have a running refDB server/sqlite3-database:

The "/var/lib/refd/db" directory contains the following file:

 DB_VERSION, refdb, refs 

(where "refs" is the name of the reference DB that I have selected).  I have not yet entered a single reference into my refs reference DB, but I wanted to give you timely feedback.


To make a long story short: 

 - I installed the binary package and accepted the error message of the post-installation script that resulted from being unable to start the refdbd server.

 - After the binary installation I started the "refdb-init" script as root.  To execute this script successfully I had to make two minor modifications (Torsten already notes difficulties concerning this script in the README.Debian file of the package.)

 -- I had the change the value of MYREFDBCTL to "/etc/init.d/refdb"

 -- I had to execute: "/usr/sbin/refdbd" as root and change the ownership of the "/var/lib/refdb/db" hierarchy afterwards. 

    In concrete, instead of the original:

    su refdb -c "$MYREFDBD -a -e 0 -l 6 -L /var/log/refdb/refdbd.log -P /var/run/refdb/refdbd.pid -u $dbadmin_name -w $dbadmin_password"	|| endScript "Failed to install or upgrade main database" "failed"


    the modified version of the refdb-init script which works in my Debian context contains:

    $MYREFDBD -a -e 0 -l 6 -L /var/log/refdb/refdbd.log -P /var/run/refdb/refdbd.pid -u $dbadmin_name -w $dbadmin_password	|| endScript "Failed to install or upgrade main database" "failed"

    chown -R refdb:refdb /var/lib/refdb/db


    Note: I first tried:

    chown refdb:refdb /var/lib/refdb/db

    su refdb -c "$MYREFDBD -a -e 0 -l 6 -L /var/log/refdb/refdbd.log -P /var/run/refdb/refdbd.pid -u $dbadmin_name -w $dbadmin_password"	|| endScript "Failed to install or upgrade main database" "failed"

    but that did not work (denied access to the log/pid files ?)


After fiddling with the refdb-init script I have to questions concerning this script:

 - I do not understand why in the call to refdbd contains the -e flag set to 0 AND the -L flag set.  Shouldn't the -e flag be set to 2 in this case or the -L flag be left out?  But maybe this means falling back to stderr if the file is not accessible, which is not exactly what the manual says.

 - In the refdb-init.in file most of the path-names (for example the path-name to the database-directory) are made configurable in the build-process, but this is not the case for the example-configuration files.  In the way the software is currently setup there should not arise any inconsistencies.  Nevertheless a cleaner solution seems to me to make the example-configuration files configurable in the build-process and to let the refdb-init script read these values from the selected configuration file.

If you like I can post a quick and dirty recipe that collects all the steps for building a Debian Lenny package from the refdb_0.9.9.0~svn471-7ubuntu1 Ubuntu source package, installing and purging the Debian binary package.  This should probably only be done after I have successfully used the reference database for some time (added references, retrieved them, build bibliographies etc.)

Note though that the recipe is currently a make-shift solution:

 - The approach described in this recipe is VERY dirty indeed.  For example: I do not even remove the "ubuntu" string in the package name (this does not mean any hostility against Ubuntu :).

 - I do not know which of the original shortcomings have already been addressed in a possible new version of Torsten's Ubuntu source package.  As I am building and installing in a Debian context, I do not know if these (or which of these) shortcomings should be handled in an Ubuntu package.

Kind regards

Stefan