Hi list,
currently I am trying to package hobbit (client + server) for EPEL and Fedora.
I have to do that anyway, but it would be nice to have high quality packages
upstream in the EPEL/Fedora repositories.
However, I'm only used to "light" packages where configure,make,make install
is
sufficient. Hobbit, in contrast, is a real beast, and needs quite some deep
knowledge in init scripting and other stuff.
I started with the upstream provided RPMs and the ones I found at
razorsedge.org and tried to come up with something. Currently I have packages
which at least work - but which are pretty ugly, use quite some dark magic and
are not at all compliant to rpmlint, Fedora's principles or even good taste.
So, is there anyone who wants to help out with the packages? I would agree to
be the maintainer of the packages once they are in the repositories.
Additionally, the Debian package maintainer already agreed to help with the
packaging and together we would try to ask upstream for adjustments, fixes and
other stuff to make life easier for packagers (and maybe admins/users) in the
mid term.
The current version is here:
www.credativ.com/~rwo/hobbit-4.2.0-1.src.rpm
DON'T use that in production yet!
What is still missing:
- Making the init files pretty:
Currently the init files launch another script whcih behaves like just a nother
init file. That can be made easier I think. Also/Maybe du to that, the init
files do not properly react to start/stop in case of problems, and not all
processes are shut down properly.
- pid files:
Currently pid files lie in /var/log/hobbit/, but should at least be in
/var/run/hobbit. Due to the shell magic already done by upstream this might be
more difficult than it sounds now.
- Licences:
The package seems to be GPL2, but some files are BSD and PD, this need to be
addresed in the spec file.
- Installation:
Right now the server requires the client due to some files included with teh
client package. However, server and client must not run together, so the
question is if this should be checked at runtime (current solution) or with
package excludes (like
razorsedge.org does, for example).
- General Cleaning:
As mentioned above, there is much too much dark magic in all the files around
Hobbit, so it will be necessary in the long term to clean all the shell
scripts to make them at least Fedora/EPEL compliant, or, even better,
distribution agnostic.
- Upstream:
There is already a set of patches included since upstream still hasn't
released a new version. Also, quite some shell magic really hurts the
packagers (Debian as well as "us"), so it might be helpfull to talk to
upstream together.
So, as I said, the package is ugly, and this task is for people who need a
challenge. However, Hobbit is quite a nice program and it is worth it.
Best regards,
Roland
--
Roland Wolters
Tel.: +49 (0)21 61 / 46 43-181
pgp fingerprint: D2DE 4612 9C7D 7B7A 420D 84A8 E900 29F9 C16C 2283
credativ GmbH, HRB Mönchengladbach 12080
Hohenzollernstr. 133, 41061 Mönchengladbach
Geschäftsführung: Dr. Michael Meskes, Jörg Folz