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Grid programs packaging



Hello,

I started an effort to package some grid programs out there. The result can
be found there:
http://graal.ens-lyon.fr/~mquinson/grid.html

For now, only nws, simgrid and apst are packaged. Please note that the two
last ones are not free under the Debian standard since they forbid
commercial use. I still have to contact upstream about that to clear that
point. I know those guys quite well, and I guess that the issue is that they
never bothered searching how to clear their licence, but that their
intention is to make free software.

Anyway, I have the feeling that it could prove useful.

I am now working on NetSolve and Globus.

The main issue is the relocation. NetSolve, apst and globus are really not
made to be installed under /usr, but to be used where built. I patched the
install process to make the program obey DESTDIR, and install under
debian/tmp, but I still have to deal with the hardcoded paths in the
binaries of NetSolve and Globus. I see 3 solutions:
 - patch them to change that, but that seems very time consuming since it is
   hardcoded in a BUNCH of locations.
 - make wrappers to fix NETSOLVE_ROOT and such, and then call the real binary
 - sed the binaries.

The third solution seems to be the more attractive because of its
efficiency, but I gave a shoot with regular sed, and it naturally fails.
I was wondering if someone here knows how to do so using the tools from
binutils or any other solution.

The second solution does not solve the issue for stuff compiled against the
libraries, since the path are hardcoded in there, too.

For Globus, I also have the relocation issue, plus the fact that the package
is not buildable with the java from Debian, I have to install the version
from blackdown, which is not even free enough to be placed into Debian. I
guess that it means globus will not become part of Debian until that's solved.

Then, the size becomes an issue since an installation of globus gives you
more that 150M of binaries. I guess that I'll first try to package it as a
mamouth package, and then try to split it. It should be feasible thanks to
the gt3 tools, and I have some ideas about this, but I first need to solve
the relocation issue.

Thanks for any advice, comment or pointer.
Bye, Mt.

--
The nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.
And if you really don't like all the standards you just have to wait another
year until the one arises you are looking for.
  -- Tannenbaum, 'Introduction to Computer Networks'

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