Hi Ole,
(oops, forgot to reply to the list)
Ole Streicher <olebole@debian.org> writes:
> This is the point: they create it from other (source) data. Therefore,
> the file on the ftp server ftp.atnf.csiro.au is not a source, but
> contains generated data.
> Debian policy requires that we create our files from source. This is
> also for transparency, so if you (as maintainer/uploader) are not
> available anymore, someone else should be able to download the latest
> sources, run "debuild" and get an updated package.
> The situation that we include a data file that was build from unknown
> sources by an unknown procedure, with no way for anyone to reproduce or
> change them, is quite unsatisfying and IMO contradicting to the spirit
> of Debian. And, as a scientist, I would not accept a dependency from
> data which I cannot trace or reproduce.
I totally agree with your point.
The casa table format is open, so the binary generated data can be
converted back to ascii if desired. Therefore the transparency issue is
not that severe.
> What difficulties would you expect if you would, instead of running
> "measures_data.csh" manually to create an updated package, do this
> inside debian/rules? The individual data files that are usually
> downloaded by measures_data.csh would then needed to be declared (and
> uploaded) as source files of the casacore-data package. As learned
> from the discussion, the circular build dependency is not a problem
> for us.
> I already repeated this argument several times, but I didn't get a
> response from you or from Benda, why you regardless seem to insist on
> using a pre-build data package instead of building it yourself. Could
> one of you please explain why my proposal (build it from source via
> measuresdata.cc) does not work? Circular dependencies are not the
> problem here, as we already learned. The measuresdata.csh script is
> simple enough; it just downloads the files that are in the .rc file and
> then calls the compiled measuresdata.cc program. Why can't we do that in
> the build procedure of casacore-data, with the files downloaded from ftp
> (which are in the .rc file) as sources?
The difficulty does not lie only in circular dependency. The unit tests
of casacore use ephemerides/VGEO and geodetic/{TAI_UTC,IGRF}. The
script of measuresdata.csh from casacore-data only generates
geodetic/{IERSeop{2000,97},IERSpredict{,2000},TAI_UTC}. I am wondering
if Gijs knows how to generate ephemerides/VGEO and geodetic/IGRF.
That's why I would go for uploading casacore tables (open-binary data)
first and then figure out how to build them from ascii sources. The
latter is complex enough, and it is not necessary to block the former.
Cheers,
Benda
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