Re: State of the Art wrt XML/XSL.
[ debian-sgml removed, since OT. Please CC me while I'm still not
subscribe to debian-perl ]
On Sat, Jul 15, 2000 at 02:58:27PM -0400, Fred Reimer wrote:
>
> Well, I wouldn't use quite so strong words, but I don't understand
> myself why Debian has to make custom deb packages for CPAN modules.
> Wouldn't it be workable to create deb "packages" that were more like
> installation helper scripts instead of the binaries themselves? So you
> select a package and when it was installed your system would run
> something like "perl -MCPAN -e 'install XML::XPath'"
Why not support both:
1- Binary installation and registration into the dpkg db.
2- Construction (and possible installation) of debs from CPAN source.
We can't simply used the "perl -MCPAN -e 'install XML::XPath'" since
this not registred the installed files and will make updating from
cdrom impossible. Also some file can be missing, doc can be out of date
(I means file like changelog, readme and copyright) and the version number
could have change!
>
> Part of the strength of Perl is that you can relatively easily install
> and remove packages. Mixing this ability with binary packages, in
> either a deb or rpm type system, just makes it harder to maintain two
> different "systems."
By trying to follow the same standard (Perl Standard in this case), we
greatly ease the maintainance. I would really like a system with the following
features:
* A Debian::CPAN module that has the same functionnalities of the CPAN module plus:
- optionnal construction of a complete source package.
- registration (using the debian perl naming standard) of the packages
through dpkg.
* The source package will be able to update itself to a new version through CPAN
using a special target into the debian/rules file (cpan-update for example).
* The whole thing thing should support system and local override so CPAN package
that needs special treatments (multiple binaries packages, addition of special
files, copyright registration, etc...). The goal shouldn't be the automation of
the entire CPAN archives to debian package, but to make as easy as possible to
lower the maintenance to a minimum (and help maintain a common standard).
* When a debian perl package is installed, the user could update using Debian::CPAN
and still benefits all the work of the install package. If the previous features are
implemented, this will resumed to those simple commands to be called:
apt-get source package
cd package-version
debian/rules cpan-update
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -b -us -uc
su - dpkg -i ../package_version-revision_all.deb
[ Note: special case should be taken for multiple binaries and thing like that,
but I think such thing can be resolved so I let them for later thoughts... ]
>
> Fred Reimer
>
>
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