Re: How to package Nuxeo DM, a Java EE application, in Debian
On 02/08/2011 11:46 AM, Stefane Fermigier wrote:
> On Feb 8, 2011, at 8:14 PM, Vincent Fourmond wrote:
>>
>> My point is not to discourage you or express scorn or whichever
>> negative view on Nuxeo, but just to state the sine qua none conditions
>> for a package to enter Debian.
>
> Out of curiosity, how many large Java application are currently packaged in Debian ?
>
> I couldn't find even one personally, on Debian 6.0:
>
> root@gange# apt-cache search xwiki
> root@gange# apt-cache search openbravo
> root@gange# apt-cache search concursive
> root@gange# apt-cache search liferay
> libportlet-api-2.0-spec-java-doc - Java Portlet Specification V2.0 - documentation
> libportlet-api-2.0-spec-java - Java Portlet Specification V2.0
> root@gange# apt-cache search compiere
> libjtds-java - JDBC 3.0 driver for Microsoft SQL Server(tm) and Sybase(tm)
> root@gange# apt-cache search ofbiz
> root@gange# apt-cache search opencrx
> root@gange# apt-cache search jboss-portal
>
> etc. So it seems either that nobody cares about getting these fine (and popular) applications into Debian, or it's just too hard to do given the current set of policies.
I think this is a fair point. It *is* very difficult to package large Java
applications for Debian. (There happens to be a similar thread on this topic on
debian-gis at the moment as well.) From the point of view of a software company
that wants to provide a .deb of their application, it is a huge amount of
additional work, and it's not always clear what sort of immediate return on
investment this will garner the software vendor.
The Debian position on licensing and eliminating duplicate code has been well
represented in this thread, so I'd like to comment on how things might progress.
What I hope to see happen is that Debian will continue to package more and more
of the popular Java libraries needed for these applications and frameworks, to
the point where Debian becomes a development platform of choice because (a) it's
less work to apt-get everything than it is to find and pull JARs manually, (b)
there are no licensing worries when you develop on Debian, and (c) there is an
active concern for security. That is, over time, the situation from the
software vendor's perspective will improve.
This doesn't address the QA concerns - I don't suppose companies can always
develop and release from stable - but it should help to reduce the vast
differences that exist today. In the meantime, Andrew Ross's suggestion of
operating an external APT repository to ship .debs of product seems like a
practical and convenient way to address applications that cannot (yet) be
uploaded into the Debian archives.
0.02,
tony
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