[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Howto package a eclipse-RCP application for Debian?



Niklaus Giger wrote:
> Hi
> 

Hi,

As far as I know we do not have a lot of experience packing eclipse
plugins/rcps. Anyhow, here is what I know...

> Since almost 10 years I use Debian on my home machines and enjoyed it very 
> much. Getting tired of being forced to use propiertary OS and programs I will 
> try to be an independent consultant and developer.
> 
> I would like to bring (at least a subset) of a Eclipse RCP application for 
> general practioners (www.elexis.ch) into Debian, which is listed at
> http://debian-med.alioth.debian.org/tasks/practice as "No know packages 
> available"
> 
> The program is under the Eclipse 1.0 license and available via SVN.
> 
> It's dependencies are listed here:
> https://elexis.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/elexis/trunk/elexis-developer-
> resources/doc/developer.textile
> 

Sweet, by the way, you can see its direct dependencies in the manifest:

https://elexis.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/elexis/trunk/elexis-developer-resources/META-INF/MANIFEST.MF

(look for Require-Bundle and Import-Package - the sum of these
determines what the bundle depends on [1])

ch.elexis;bundle-version="2.1.0",
ch.rgw.utility;bundle-version="2.0.0",
org.eclipse.ui,
org.eclipse.core.runtime

Which is relevant depending on how/if you decide split this into smaller
binary packages.

If it relies on OSGi metadata (e.g. Require-Bundle/Import-Package in the
Manifest) to find database adapters, you will probably need to patch the
adapter-jars in Debian. This has been one of the most time-consuming
tasks with getting eclipse done - hardly any of eclipse's dependencies
had OSGi metadata.

> I am at the moment digesting all the info at mentors.debian.org, the debian 
> policy and willing to invest quite a few hours to get it into Debian.
> 

I am afraid that we do not have any documents on building eclipse
packages at this time.

> Can anyone point me to package which has similar characteristics? Is 
> http://mentors.debian.net/cgi-bin/sponsor-pkglist?action=details;package=solr
> a good starting point?
> 

I suppose you could have a look at eclipse-emf[2], which will probably
be the first external plugin we will have ready. We are using eclipse's
"dropins" (which should make eclipse update its metadata on start up
time for newly installed plugins). I can also recommend checking out
Fedora; they are a bit further than us on this (most of eclipse-emf was
done by copying them). On a related note: guess how we prepared eclipse...

(The answer is: cherry-picked copy-paste)

> Should I use git-svn to get the source code from the repository?
> 

Personally we fetched eclipse-emf via this script from Fedora[3], which
uses the cvs tag; I am not sure it works for this plugin, anyhow
fetching the sources directly from a VCS repository is definitely accepted.

Sadly it does not look like upstream releases source packages, nor tags
releases. I would recommend getting in touch with upstream and ask
him/her to do either (preferably both) - though getting an svn tag on a
release would be more than enough, so if upstream cannot be bothered to
do both, I would go for getting tags (also they do not require too much
from upstream).

(whether you use git-svn or svn is really up to you)

> As it needs Eclipse 3.5 I am looking forward for the moment when the announces 
> packages will arrive in unstable. Or shall I install manually the Ubuntu ones?
> 

We look forward to being able to announce its arrival to unstable as
well. Currently its two last dependencies are in NEW[4]. After that
eclipse will go into NEW itself. I do not expect it in unstable any
sooner than in two weeks (unless the ftp-masters goes on a
"flushing-spree" like they did last summer)

While you should be able to use the Ubuntu debs, be advised that the
script we use in eclipse-emf is not available in these debs. You have to
build eclipse yourself from our repository[5] at this time to get them.

> Any hint welcome.
> 
> Best regards
> 
> Niklaus
> 
> --      
> Niklaus Giger
> Wieshoschet 6
> CH-8753 Mollis
> +41  (0)55 612 20 54 P
> +41  (0)55 618 64 68 G
> 
> 

Feel free to write back with any question you may have,
~Niels


[1] If I recall correctly; Require-Bundle also imports the packages from
the bundle you are requiring.

[2] http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-java/eclipse-emf.git

[3]
http://cvs.fedoraproject.org/viewvc/rpms/eclipse-emf/devel/get-emf.sh?revision=1.5&view=co

[4] http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html
jetty5 and libjasper-java.

[5] http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-java/eclipse.git


Attachment: signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature


Reply to: