Re: Some suggestions for packaging of Odin
Hi,
On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 08:29:55PM +0100, Thies Jochimsen wrote:
> Dear David and Debian-Med,
>
> I just skimmed through your conversation on the packaging of Odin and I am
> happy to see the progress. To avoid potential problems as soon as possible, I
> have the following little comments and questions:
Thanks for you comments. Close interaction with upstream developers is
an important factor for high-quality packaging.
> - I admit that I have been quiet lazy when it comes to sonames
> of the libraries. Since the binary interface changes frequently
> (even for each minor release), I just tried to used the version
> number of Odin. I know this is wrong...
> Any suggestions are welcome ;-)
If the binary interface keeps changing frequently it makes no sense to
expose the shared lib with SO version and such. Of course it still makes
sense to compile it as a shared lib, since it is used by many pieces of
ODIN. I'd suggest to keep it close to the ODIN binary (maybe in the
same package), but not in a libodin<something> package.
Given that you previously said that other in-house apps at your
institute use that libs as well, it might make sense to provide a
'libodin-dev' package with a static library and the corresponding header
files.
> - The sequence examples/templates, the samples and the coil files
> are an important component. Although, technically, Odin can be
> executed without them, this would be an unrealistic scenario.
> Thus, I would suggest to bundle them as closely to the Odin GUI
> as possible.
Thanks for clarifying.
> - When splitting up Odin into several packages, would it be possible
> to have a (empty) meta-package 'odin' with proper dependencies to
> install all sub-packages?
Yes, that is easily possible.
> - The binary 'odintestsuite' is just a unit test of several core
> components and could be removed from the final package, if size
> is an issue.
If it is just a testsuite that does not depend on an actual environment,
I'd suggest to run it during package buildtime (if it does not use
excessive ressources). However, if it provides some kind of self-test
tool to let users make sure that the whole setup is fully functional,
I'd suggest to keep it in the package.
> - There are several (hidden) dependencies of Odin. For instance,
> the GUI assumes a working 'g++' to compile and link the sequences
> on the fly, or 'gdb' and 'xterm' to debug sequences.
> Would it be possible to include these in the dependency list?
Thanks for letting us know!
Michael
--
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http://apsy.gse.uni-magdeburg.de/hanke
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