Re: How much interest in a "debian-science.org" repository?

[Russell Shaw <rjshaw@netspace.net.au>]

Kevin B. McCarty wrote:
> Dear list,
>
> Currently there are a fair number of repositories of science-related
> unofficial Debian packages out there.  I've been thinking that it might
> make sense to consolidate them into a single site.  This would have
> several advantages:
>
> - Permit convenient one-stop "shopping" for unofficial scientific .debs
> with only one sources.list entry (well, two counting deb-src)
>
> - Better PR for the unofficial .debs.  Instead of a dozen different
> unofficial repositories, now only one would need to be publicized,
> perhaps with an obvious name like "www.debian-science.org".
>
> - Possibility of more complicated dependency graphs between unofficial
> packages
>
> - Possibility (someday) to set up a buildd network that can autobuild
> all the packages for various architectures
>
> - Testbed for packages that ultimately can enter Debian proper
>
> - Convenient unofficial source for packages that can't enter Debian, for
> whatever reason, as long as the maintainers had permission to distribute
> them
>
> I was talking to Brett Viren about the possibility to host CLHEP and
> GEANT4 .debs at his site, maintaining a repository for unofficial
> physics related packages.  So the question is, would other Debian
> Scientists, in fields other than physics, also be interested in using
> this repository?
>
> The idea needs a lot of setup so probably not much will happen
> immediately; this email is mainly to gauge the amount of interest.

An easier way might be just to make a web page that has all the
necessary sources.list lines for all the known repositories, so
the user can just paste them into their sources.list and apt-get update.
If the page was a wiki, newly found repositories could be added easily.

Another way would be to make a debian package that updates your sources.list
with new sources.list lines for unofficial repositories. That way, you could
do: apt-get install debian-science, and the package installation script will
run apt-get update for you.