Re: Packaging owncloud-client
Sandro Knauß wrote:
> Many thanks for this fast reaction. I really like your explanations and the
> description for mirall.
>
> Unfortunatelly it is more complex than that, I forgotten to explain the
> structure of mirall / owncloud-client:
Meanwhile I've just discovered "http://en.opensuse.org/Mirall";. Is
this the same software? This description presents it as basically an
installer for ownCloud, which is an aspect completely missing from
your description. What's going on here?
> In the lowest level the files get sync via ocsync, that speaks three different
> protocols: "ownCloud", SMB and SFTP. This lib is used by mirall. So you can
> actually sync with mirall to an owncloud server, or any SMB or SFTP place.
> Now the owncloud guys took mirall and created the owncloud-client, that has
> only owncloud support and is easier to handle. In the source package from
> owncloud both binaries are built.
>
> So I try the description for mirall (based on yours):
>
> Package: mirall
> Description: graphical client to synchronzie your folders in a set of computers
* still misspelling "synchronize";
* too long, though I suppose switching "graphical client" back to
"GUI" in the synopsis would save plenty of space;
* "in" isn't the right preposition. This is a tricky one; I suppose
I'd have to go for "across".
How about
Description: GUI for synchronizing folders across a set of computers
Usually I would try to "standardise" all three packages to a "$SUITE -
$COMPONENT" format, but maybe that's just too difficult here.
Then the description. It would be nice (for the people writing
translations) if we could organise things so that mirall and
owncloud-client had a paragraph of shared explanation plus a paragraph
each explaining their differences. That may or may not be achievable.
> mirall lets you always have your latest files wherever you are by
> synchronizing them and is based on CSync. You can choose to synchronize via
This would just sound better as something like:
mirall lets you always have your latest files wherever you are. It
is based on CSync, so it supports synchronizing via [...]
Wait... reading the description for libowncloudsync0, I don't see why
you're mentioning CSync here if mirall doesn't use it. The fact that
libowncloudsync0 derives historically from something called CSync may
be something to mention in the description for libowncloudsync0, but I
don't see why it's relevant here for people trying to understand what
mirall does and whether they want to install it.
> SMB, SFTP or to a cloud storage named ownCloud. Actually you need the
If it's *via* SMB or *via* SFTP or *to* the cloud, you can't just
elide the second "via". You could say "it supports synchronizing via
SMB/SFTP or to cloud storage"...
But is "SMB" still accepted as a name for the protocol? I thought
they deprecated the name in the mid-nineties (in favour of CIFS) and
the v1 protocol in the mid-noughties (in favour of SMB2).
Saying that you can synch via these protocols or to ownCloud just
makes me wonder what protocol it uses to synch to ownCloud and whether
it's possible to use SFTP instead.
I'm not sure you can say "a cloud storage", and "named ownCloud" isn't
much of an explanation; it sounds as if it's saying that as long as
you name it ownCloud it'll work with mirall.
"Actually" is a false friend - you mean "currently". Putting this
sort of thing in a package description tends to be a bad idea, since
it means you're promising to revise the text when the situation
changes. (What do the dependencies look like here - some sort of
"Recommends: libocsync-plugin-all | libocsync-plugin-sftp | ..."?)
> libocsync-plugin-* packages to be able to use the specific protocol. Just
> specify one or more folders on the local machine to synchronize, and
> presumably a set of computers to share them across, and any change to the
"Presumably" was me saying that *I* didn't know - I was assuming you
would be able to correct it! Is this how it works? Do I nominate a
set of other machines to synch with, or does each of those machines
need to have mirall configured with the same synching group name, or
what? I would guess they don't all need to be running Linux and
mirall, given that it supports SMB, but then does that mean I only
need mirall installed on the machine I configure the folders and
computers from?
> files on one computer will flow across to every other. Except that sometimes
> it leaves some target devices out, because it is location aware.
And I left this phrased as something that sounds more like a bug than
a feature. Why do I want it to sometimes decide to leave some target
devices out? It sounds as if it will leave out synching with your
home NAS while you aren't at home; but will it synch with your home PC
while you're away? And if it's willing to do that, why not then synch
from your home PC to the NAS?
Besides, "https://github.com/dmacvicar/mirall"; (if *that's* the same
mirall) says "Network location awareness not implemented yet".
> .
> This package provides the graphical client, which needs to be installed
> on every machine in the group. For Owncloud synchronizing there is a special
> client named owncloud-client.
Revised suggestions:
Package: mirall
Description: GUI for synchronizing folders across a set of computers
The ownCloudSync system lets you always have your latest files wherever
you are. Just specify one or more folders on the local machine to
synchronize, and a set of computers to share them across, and any
change to the files on one computer will silently and reliably flow
across to every other.
.
mirall provides the graphical client for ownCloudSync, which supports
synchronizing within a local network via SMB2/SFTP or using cloud
storage provided by ownCloud (if appropriate libocsync-plugin-* packages
for the specific protocol are installed). An alternative client named
owncloud-client is available that uses only ownCloud.
> Package: owncloud-client
> Description: graphical client to synchronzie your folders with an ownCloud
> Server
> ownCloud Client lets you always have your latest files wherever you are by
> synchronizing them to a cloud storage named ownCloud. Just specify one or more
> folders on the local machine to synchronize, and presumably a set of computers
> to share them across, and any change to the files on one computer will flow
> across to every other. Except that sometimes it leaves some target devices
> out, because it is location aware.
> .
> This package provides the graphical client, which needs to be installed
> on every machine in the group.
Package: owncloud-client
Description: GUI for synchronizing folders with an ownCloud server
The ownCloudSync system lets you always have your latest files wherever
you are. Just specify one or more folders on the local machine to
synchronize, and a set of computers to share them across, and any
change to the files on one computer will silently and reliably flow
across to every other.
.
owncloud-client provides the graphical client specialising in
synchronizing with cloud storage provided by ownCloud. An alternative
client named mirall is available that can also use SMB/SFTP.
> Package: libowncloudsync0
> Description: synchronizing library for mirall and ownCloud Client
> mirall and ownCloud Client uses this libary to synchronize in a set of
> computers. libowncloudsync is based on CSync and adds functions that are
> missing in CSync and are more graphical client specific.
Description: synchronizing library for mirall and owncloud-client
The ownCloudSync system lets you always have your latest files wherever
you are. Just specify one or more folders on the local machine to
synchronize, and a set of computers to share them across, and any
change to the files on one computer will silently and reliably flow
across to every other.
.
This library is based on CSync, but adds functions that are missing in
CSync and more specific to graphical clients.
--
JBR with qualifications in linguistics, experience as a Debian
sysadmin, and probably no clue about this particular package
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