Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Officially recommended version?

[Alexandru Csete]

On Tue, Sep 17, 2013 at 4:30 PM, Tom Rondeau <address@hidden> wrote:
> On Mon, Sep 16, 2013 at 5:07 PM, Alexandru Csete <address@hidden> wrote:
>> On Mon, Sep 16, 2013 at 5:09 PM, Marcus D. Leech <address@hidden> wrote:
>>> On 09/16/2013 10:40 AM, Alexandru Csete wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Greetings,
>>>>
>>>> I've been going nuts over the past few weeks why new users end up with
>>>> gnuradio 3.6. Clearly, some of them want to use some funky stuff that
>>>> has not yet been ported to 3.7, but there are also others who are just
>>>> clueless and end up with 3.6 by following the instructions.
>>>>
>>>> Indeed, according to
>>>> http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki/InstallingGR
>>>> The recommended way to install is the build-gnuradio script and this
>>>> script installs the latest 3.6 release. There is no option to install
>>>> the latest 3.7 release and there is no option to uninstall previously
>>>> installed 3.6!
>>>>
>>>> This may have worked six months ago when there was only 3.6, but it is
>>>> not acceptable today - unless 3.6 really is the recommended version,
>>>> which in turn would make me feel like an idiot for distributing stuff
>>>> that requires 3.7...
>>>>
>>>> Anyway, I don't mind having the build-gnuradio script as the
>>>> recommended tool for installing gnuradio but it should at least offer
>>>> the latest 3.7 release and force the user to make a decision whether
>>>> to install 3.6, 3.7 or master.
>>>>
>>>> Finally, it is unclear to me what the recommended way to uninstall
>>>> gnuradio is when using this script. I've seen some people talk about
>>>> an "uninstall-gnuradio" script but I can't find any official reference
>>>> to that.
>>>
>>> build-gnuradio -m installs 3.7
>>>
>>
>> It was my understanding that -m installs the git head and not the
>> latest 3.7 release. IMHO, git head does not qualify as a stable
>> baseline for application development and distribution.
>>
>>> There's still a metric ass-tonne of Gnu Radio stuff out there (including my
>>> own applications) that is for 3.6, which is why the default for
>>> build-gnuradio is to install 3.6.5.1
>>
>> My problem is not so much with the script itself as with the fact that
>> it is the recommended way to install. Maybe it is unintentional and a
>> forgotten leftover from the 3.6-days. That is why I am asking for an
>> official opinion, if there is any.
>>
>> It also appears that many fedora and ubuntu versions now come with
>> gnuradio 3.6.5 packaged.
>>
>> Alex
>
>
> Hi Alex,
>
> It's actually left over from the very early post-3.7 days. Because of
> the many OOT projects using 3.6 (or earlier), we wanted to let things
> settle out before defaulting everyone to 3.7. But from all of the talk
> on the list and from what I've heard, it sounds like many of the
> projects people use and are interested in have been moving over to
> 3.7. It's past time to update that language on the website.
>
> This topic is on the agenda for Thursday's developers call. I just
> want to get any more feedback on the issue before we change things. My
> thinking right now is that we basically just add an explanation of the
> 3.6 vs 3.7 to the download page on the website and also how to get the
> different versions using the different tools. I just want to talk
> about this out loud on the call to make sure I don't miss anything.
>
> On the other hand, I put PyBOMBS above the build-gnuradio script to
> suggest using the new tool over the build script. But as PyBOMBS
> was/is new and because of the conversion of OOT projects to 3.7, I
> left the language that build-gnuradio is the preferred method in
> there.
>
> But it's time to update. Thanks for bringing up the conversation.


Hi Tom,

Thanks for the info. I think adding a note about 3.6 vs 3.7 would be a
good step in the right direction.

Alex