Re: Autoupdate of java application downloads external libraries

[Eric@Lavar.de]

Hi Alex,

I'm not a DD, but here my opinion:
- using local libraries is an issue for licensing and security reasons
(they don't get fixed with security updates).
- this said, the same could be said of the Firefox plugins, but they're
only installed for the user running Firefox.

Hence I would suggest the following:
- make sure JDownloader compiles and runs (initially) with the system
libraries, else you will have a hard time getting JDownloader into Debian.
- make sure the user is aware of what he's doing when accepting updates
(and can control them).
- all updates need to be done at the user level, even core (alternatively
switch off core updates). I can't imagine that an auto-update at the
system level would be acceptable...
- regular packages from your side bring in up-to-date core and plugins. It
would be very good if these updates would overwrite/overrule out-dated
local updates.
Rather messy, but perhaps doable.

An alternative (better) approach would be to use
http://www.debian.org/volatile/, the people on there might have better
ideas on how to address your issue.

Hope this helps,
Eric

Alexander Block said:
> Hello mentors,
>
> I'm currently packaging the application jDownloader which requires very
> frequent updates. The mainstream devs have solved the updating with an
> auto-update feature that checks for new versions of the core part and
> plugins. As I understand, this is absolutely ok as other applications
> (like Iceweasel) do the same for their plugins. The problem now is, that
> the auto updater also updates some internally used java libraries which
> are also available in the debian archives. For example, the application
> depends on libswingx, but instead of using the system wide installation
> it uses a local version that is retrieved with the auto updater.
>
> Now my question is: Is this ok for Debian? Is it ok to ignore installed
> libraries and use local versions instead? Also, is it generally ok if an
> application is able to update it's own core (not only plugins)?
>
> I really would like to change the source so that it uses the installed
> libraries instead. But the problem is that the auto update process may
> add/remove/change dependencies and I don't see a way to handle that.
>
> Btw, the auto updater is absolutely required. jDownloader is based on a
> lot of plugins which are for example responsible for link extraction
> from external sites. Everytime one site changes something, an update is
> required to make the plugin work again.
>
> Thanks,
> Alex



-- 
Eric de France, d'Allemagne et de Navarre