Package builder utility

[Joe1962]

Heh, I "lost" this thread today, couldn't find it in the usual places. Then Masta gave me the link. Turns out it was in The Lounge for some reason, as if this wasn't a serious piece of work, lol. So here it is in General Development now, where it belongs...

[blurymind]

i just saw vlpbu2 and i must say that it turns out great. Moe has done a wonderfull job with this utility.

Idea suggestions:
Is it possible to have something to encourage the user to submit the created packages? Like a promt message with a link to "submit package" thread at the forum or something like that? After the package is created of course..
or even ask the user whether he would like to upload this package to a submiting repository or something like that. Of course the user should be prompted for a password and a username...but still,this automation leads to security issues and other things to question.

One thing that has always been a pain in the neck about making packages, making the packager untar and makepkg them again, is the need to add a launcher in the start menu for many packages. The need to find a pixmap,then move it to a directory, then make a *.desktop file,etc etc. I wonder if its possible for the utility to pick up the lack of a *.desktop file in a package and prompt the user to create one ...with a simple window (yet another module for this utility) where the user has to pick name of the entry,type of the app,pixmap file with the correct size,and the command to execute the app.. This module can create a *.desktop file and put it in the correct dir (which is the same always) and move the correct pixmap to the pixmaps dir.
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BUG report?:
When i tried it on a few source archives:

on the first i had a configure error due a dependency...which is not vlpbu's fault,but it kept on saying that it created a tlz package and ended saying:  "*.tlz doesn't look too good... I'll fix it"

now on the second,configure and make went fine, it compressed it into a tlz,but it ended saying the same thing:
"*.tlz doesn't look too good... I'll fix it"
Where did it create the tlz package?  I waited for a minute with the hope it will tell me or i will find it in the same dir where the source archive was (~/), then clicked abort and got the message "built process has not yet begun"

EDIT:
I looked at /tmp/packagename and in there i could find a tlz.. in the subdir "Package-pkgname"... all i can say is that while this isnt an error, the package end result is very hard to find by the user. After the package is created the user should be asked where to move that package or something like that..
And the message itself suggests that there is a problem with the package.

console messages:

Code:

root:# vlpbu2
Session management error: Authentication Rejected, reason : None of the authentication protocols specified are supported and host-based authentication failed
WARNING: circular references detected
Form1 (1)
Mutex destroy failure: Device or resource busy
WARNING: 39 allocation(s) non freed.

hope it helps
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a little cosmetic fix:
Is it possible when you browse for the source archive,you are sent to /home directory by default,instead of /usr/bin
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Also,this version looks alot better than the previous. Its good that the user can now see whats going on on configure and make steps.
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i will work out some new graphic files for vl-pbu these days..

[M0E-lnx]

Thanks to all of you following my slow pased project.

@ joe1962:

I originally posted this in the launge because it was nothing more than an idea, didn't know how far I was going to get with gambas, or if I would stick to it at all. Turns out, I did, and hope to get even further with it.

@ Blurymind
As far as encouraging the user to submit a package goes, I'm not sure that's the best thing to do, since all packagers must be registered and need to have ssh keys in place at OSL. We could go as far as encouraging them into looking at contributing to the project, by registering themselves as packages, but they'd still need to submit the packages themselves. I'm not sure I want to automate that.

As far as yoru experience with the sources, I guess it's just the wording of the message that threw you off. Here is what happens
instead of checkinstall, I use makeslapt to create the package and get slapt-get deps rules on there too. Now that's where it gets tricky, because I have to parse the package name in format that is not really valid for a package name.

Code:

makeslapt --tlz ${APP}-${APP_VER}_${PKG_ARCH}_${PKG_REL}.tlz

which results in something like this: Name-Version_Arch_Rel.tlz
Note how the "-" changes to "_" after the second instance, that's because makeslapt has to be called like that, or the package name will be really bad.
So I just let it do it like that, and then simply rename the package as: Name-Version-Arch-Rel.tlz

I have however modified the message to avoid any more misunderstandings

The final package is sent to /tmp/application-version/package-application.
Again, this will not be the standard. Eventually, I'll add provisions to offer the user the final path of the resulting package, and a cleanup option to clean up the build dir.

As far as the console message goes, I get that too, I think it's a gambas thing, I'll have to research it.

Again, thanks for the graphics and testing, it really helps a lot

PS. I need to see if maybe you can draw me an icon for this thing, so I can create a .desktop file for it, and make it start with a click instead of a console command.

[Joe1962]

Dang, blurymind... Now you got me roaring to cook up a .desktop file generator in gambas!!! I studied the .desktop specs extensively when doing vl-hot (this helped me with packaging too), might as well put that time to yet another use.

As for those console errors, the first one is from the session manager and you'll get that a it lot if you launch qt/kde apps from terminal. The second part is probably due to the way you exit the app, not releasing all the windows, etc. I used to get that till I researched / figured out how to end gracefully.

[M0E-lnx]

With the help of Joe1962, I have accomplished one of the most useful parts of this project.

The slack-desc generator is now fully functional (thanks again joe1962 for your help).

As I now prepare to make the first beta release for testing, I'd like to open up for suggestions for the name for this project.
I've been calling it vlpbu2 (since vlpbu was the other terminal based package builder). However, I can't say I'm fully satisfied with the name i've chosen. So I'd like to get some input so you guys help me come up with a good descriptive name.

I've thought about "vpackager".

Any other suggestions, please shoot away

[Joe1962]

I've thought about "vpackager".

Sounds fitting.

[rbistolfi]

Thats name sounds nice. Congratulations for the great job! I think you are figthing with Joe for the "developer of the month" prize. You have some advantage, because of your nice app, but joe is the gambas man, and we have easuter too with that ndiswrapper tool... will be hard to choose... 

PS: The soho team have the "developer of the year" prize, they dont fit on this contest.

[blurymind]

awesome!!    This utility will save sooo much time and will make the installing from source archives  more accessible and easy for the newbie user,who is dependable too much of the repository.

Moe>  u are right for the package submiting. The only kind of way to encourage the user is to ask him somewhere if he would like to become a packager and submit packages and link to the forum or to VL's website (maybe a new section of the site,called "latest packages" or something like that)
Your utility does what its supposed to do very well. My only remark is that after the packaging is complete,it points to the user where the package is,or puts the tlz package in the same directory where the source package is. , which ofcourse is already planned,so no problems here. Vlpbu2 perfectly picks the version number of the package.I think you managed to do that very well! =)
The "tag" feature is abit limited,because it can do only vl58 and vl6, i think it would be great if it could assign a custom tag,this way there will be no limitation of vector's version.

I will try to make better graphics for next version. It already looks awesome...

Joe1962>i agree vpackager sounds awesome too. Thanks for helping Moe and yeah- the module for generating a custom *desktop file will surelly be a great addition to this tool.It will make it a priceless time-saver! I remember playing around with a package for like a whole hour just to get the right pixmap and desktop file in it (i didnt know how to do it before and it really was a pain in the neck).

I think Moe deserves to be a developer of the month or whatever.  This is great job and  the tool is good enough to be included in some of VL's next releases.Its an app like no other.Something that other distros dont have. Worth including in the vl system menu,right under gslapt!   

[M0E-lnx]

@ blurymind:
The reason I left the VL tag choices limited to vl58 and vl60 is because that way you keep a consistant naming scheme. I certainly wouldn't want someone to submit a package that's not named or created properly.

What I need now is an icon (24x24 ??) to include in the app's title bar and for the menu entry. In the future, maybe a theme for the buttons would be nice.

But really, thanks blurymind. You made this skeleton look nice

@ all others:

Question... Should I offer an option to override default CFLAGS?

[easuter]

Question... Should I offer an option to override default CFLAGS?

That may be a good idea.

[Joe1962]

I think Moe deserves to be a developer of the month or whatever.

I agree! But only if I get 2 retrospective awards for vl-hot and vcpufreq...

[M0E-lnx]

LOL @ Joe1962

I dont think I'm even close to wining any kind of award... I'm just a n00b. Had lots of help building this beast (see the credits tab in about)

[blurymind]

No noob can get this far with such a great utility. 
i created a bunch of graphic files that you can use:

http://www.garbagewars.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=20

check the album later,i think of uploading some more. For now there are 3 variations of the previous graphic and a launcher icon for vl-pbu... Vlpbu is easier to type in console than vpackager

[Joe1962]

Vlpbu is easier to type in console than vpackager

Maybe, but it's way harder to remember...

[M0E-lnx]

I just thought that since this is a GUI, it woudlnt' make sense if the user has to type the name to run it. which is why it will go on the menu, so you can point and click away...

BTW.. Thanks again for your help BM