[xen-tools-discuss] Fedora RPM for xen-tools

[Axel Beckert]

Hi,

[Still sending to both mailing lists, but now setting the reply-to to
the xen-tools-discuss list, so if anyone is only on xen-tools-dev list
and wants to follow this thread, the followup will be on
xen-tools-discuss only.]

On Wed, Apr 03, 2013 at 01:15:11AM +0200, Dario Faggioli wrote:
> > Were you at FOSDEM, at the Xen booth? I visited the booth once but
> > missed to meet at least Ian Campbell.
> > 
> I was, and I stayed at the Xen booth for quite some time... I'm the
> second from right in the group picture (the one with the SuSE chameleon)
> here http://blog.xen.org/index.php/2013/02/05/fosdem13-personal-impressions/

Hrm, I just remember having met the second guy from left and Ian
Jackson (not on the picture).

> > I've got an idea what you mean. I noticed recently, that the
> > per-distribution hooks are installed into /usr/lib/ instead of
> > /usr/share/ where they should belong, and was surprised that Debian's
> > lintian checks didn't go off about that, because Debian cares about
> > the difference between /usr/share and /usr/lib, too.
> >
> Well, this is the biggest complaint of rpmlint, i.e., something I really
> need to take care of before even trying to submit the package officially
> to Fedora. So, are you saying that you're going to move the hooks
> to /usr/share ?

Very likely, yes.

> > Do you have your packaging in some VCS repo?
> 
> Not yet, but I plan to. Will keep the lists posted.

Ok, thanks!

[outdated .spec file in xen-tools sources]
> I think, perhaps in a short while, when both the spec file and the
> package will be in a better shape, we can add my spec file there, and
> point to the package. I can of course send a patch for that (again, when
> ready), if you like the idea.

A short note suffices. "git rm" is slightly faster than applying some
patch. ;-)

> [...] However, I have to
> admit, all the issues I'm having (which is, mainly, the thing
> about /usr/lib above) are not related to the sources being too much
> Debian biased, or too much Debian packaging stuff in the way, or
> anything like that.
> 
> In fact, for what I've seen up to now, I wouldn't call the sources so
> much RPM-unfriendly to the point that any particular action needs to be
> taken...

Good to hear. :-)

> Of course, while keeping working on this, I'll let you know (and,
> hopefully, send patches), if/when that will reveal no longer true.
> :-)

Thanks!

> So, again, allow me to get into this packaging thing a little more (this
> is my first RPM :-P), but for now, I haven't seen anything terrible,
> from an "rpmbuild perspective". :-)

No hurry!

> > I noticed the line "Requires: debootstrap" in the .spec file. Does
> > that refer to Debian's tool "debootstrap" or is the name just a pure
> > coincidence?
> > 
> It's actually Debian's debootstrap, which, luckily enough, is packaged
> for Fedora: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/debootstrap
> 
> I think having the xen-tools package depend on it is reasonable, since
> the main purpose and most common use-case of xen-tools is installing
> Debian and Debian-alike distros, isn't it?

Ah, I totally misinterpreted that as build-dependencies instead of
runtime-dependencies. Of course xen-tools makes use of debootstrap a
lot. :-)

> Then, as soon as I get some time for it, I plan to give an eye to
> packaging rinse too... But that's another story! :-P

I once played around with febootstrap, but as it seemed to try to
delete and recreate the directory it should install into initially,
it's totally unsuitable for bootstrapping into mounted devices: It
stops when it can't remove the mount point... Not sure if that's fixed
nowadays. But since febootstrap 3.x seems to have dropped any
cross-distro/cross-release support, it's likely of less use for
xen-tools than it was before anyway.

OTOH rinse seems to be well-maintained again.

		Kind regards, Axel
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