[freeside] Documentation

[ivan]

On Fri, Jan 12, 2001 at 04:31:05PM -0800, Jason Spence wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 12, 2001 at 06:16:34AM -0800, ivan developed
> a new theory of relativity and: 
> 
> > > Yeah, no kidding :) I've written some stuff that automates Freeside
> > > installation (including all the Perl module stuff), but it's
> > > encumbered by a contract I did.  I'm working with a client on
> > > releasing it to the community, and so far it looks like I'll succeed.
> > > 
> > > Doing an RPM won't work very well because then you would have to
> > > package up all the Perl modules as well, and that could be messy.
> > 
> > I disagree.  Depending on perl modules that are RPM (or .deb, or bsd
> > ports) packaged is a standard thing to do that works just fine.
> 
> I don't know about now, but the last time I tried to make the RedHat
> people happy by using a pure RPM installation of Freeside, I was
> unable to locate the appropriate Perl modules that Freeside requires.

> rpmfind.net shows that you can get a bunch of perl modules here:
> http://rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/CPAN/1/src/Applications_CPAN.html

No.

> but those aren't included in the standard distributions.

Exactly.

>  I mean, you
> could introduce a dependancy on those RPMs in the Freeside spec file,
> but then I can just imagine all the users going "I can't find any of
> these goddamn RPMs, this is outrageous!" and such.  Of course, we
> could point out that those RPMs need to be downloaded from
> rpmfind.net, but 1) it hasn't been very reliable or fast these days
> and 2) users don't read manuals all the time :)

Before you can distribute Freeside as an RPM (or in any packaging system),
the dependencies have to be satistifed.  If they aren't part of the
standard distribution or available from a definitive source (rpmfind.net
does not qualify), they you will need to provide those packages as well.

> Actually, we could just bundle the RPMs in with the Freeside
> distribution,

Absolutely not.

> Regardless, I can't find all the Perl modules that Freeside needs in
> the CPAN RPM archive anyway, so the install script will still have to
> either attempt to download them or the tarballs would have to be
> included with Freeside

No.

> I'm not too familiar with the BSD ports collection yet, but it seems
> to me that there are only five subdirs in /usr/ports/lang/perl/p5*, so
> I'm assuming there's only five perl modules in the BSD ports
> collection as well.  

That is incorrect.

> HTML::Parser: (Ivan's link in install.html is wrong) "staPi"

fixed

> Ok, so it looks like we can make a Freeside superdistribution that
> includes all these modules and an install script that installs them.
> Couldn't be that hard...

No.

> > >  In addition, the install script would have to
> > > locate the apache config file and then patch it with all the
> > > settings.
> > 
> > No, Freeside should not touch the system Apache config file - it should
> > run it's own instance of Apache with its own config file.
> 
> Yeah, which is why I was pointing out that it would be easier to
> relocate the installation tree for Apache using the BSDs rather than
> trying to relocate the RPM (which (I believe) is not possible without
> completely unpackaging it and repackaging it).  That way Freeside gets
> its own little Apache installation instead of having to mess with the
> system one.

Freeside will not install "its own little Apache installation".

> > That's useless.  Freeside doesn't need its own little copy of Apache.  It
> > can depend on apache, mod_ssl and mod_perl in the packaging system, and
> > run the standard system apache binary with the -f flag and it's own
> > configuration file.
> 
> Hmm.  That's a good point.  However, wouldn't it be a win to give the
> user an option at installtime to install the latest Apache?

No.

> I figure
> that the install script could go get the system Apache's version and
> compare it with the one in the superpackage (assuming that Apache is
> distributed with the Freeside superpackage)

There will be no "Freeside superpackage".

> and gently point out to
> the user that "gee Mr. User, your system apache version 1.2.3 is not
> as recent as my 1.3.14, would you like me to install Freeside on
> Apache 1.3.14?"

No.

> Actually, I need to package cdctl (one of my OS projects) for Debian.
> Would you mind if I mailed you with a few questions I had about
> packaging it?

Probably not.

http://www.debian.org/doc/maint-guide/
http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/packaging.html/

-- 
meow
_ivan