Re: [Gnash-dev] Gnash packages for Fedora / OLPC

[Rob Savoye]

John Gilmore wrote:
> OLPC has forked their gnash-0.8.3 package because the upstream Fedora
> package had a pile of dependencies (for kde, etc) that they don't use.

  Most distributions want to package the GTK/Firefox and KDE/Konqueror
support in just one build, so the spec file builds both at the same
time. While it would be entirely possible to have multiple spec files,
one for each GUI, this would result in duplicate builds, wasting time
and disk space. The OLPC packaging is unique in that it is GTK only.

> I tried building a Fedora package from the 0.8.4 release, but the
> release tarball doesn't include the Fedora specs file (tho perhaps it

  Spec files are traditionally not included in a release package, just
in the source tree. Our gnash.spec file for building rpms is based on
the Fedora one. Most distributions use their own versions of packaging
files, our versions are mainly just a convenience for developers that
wish to build packages. Most though just do "make install". :-)

> As we make the 0.8.4 Fedora release, I recommend that we improve the
> package by merging the changes from the OLPC fork.  Their change is
> briefly described among all the other OLPC-forked packages here:

  It's just a minor change to drop all the KDE dependencies.

> If our 0.8.4 SRPM builds several binary packages, one of which is the
> configured-down OLPC one that has few dependencies, that'll solve the
> problem and heal a fork.  (Hmm, does the real Fedora 10 alpha SRPM
> include any patches to gnash?  If so, shouldn't we incorporate those,
> or start a dialog with the packager?)

  To the best of my knowledge, there are no Fedora specific patches, as
 my main workstation runs Fedora as well. Forking of spec files is
standard procedure, btw.

> There are no 0.8.4 binary or srpm packages uploaded at getgnash.org,
> even days after the release.  I would've thought that those binary
> packages would be built during the release process.  If it won't build
> in the configuration used by the major distros, maybe it isn't quite
> ready for release yet; and if we didn't test that it could do so,
> ditto.  And if we did test, why didn't we upload?

  I've asked Russ, who is the release manager for Gnash, to build xpis,
debs, and rpms of the 0.8.4 release. As we did the release in the middle
of the hackathon, and with traveling, delayed this a few days. I can
tweak the packaging files if need be, since I'm more used to it. I'm
still traveling, but will be home in a few days. My last conference
(Open Source World) is is also our first booth, where I'll be demoing
Gnash on an XO and on an Ubuntu NetBook.

        - rob -