On 6/15/12 6:08 AM, Sébastien Maret wrote: > Hi all, > > I spent most of this morning trying to install Fink on one of my colleague > computer. This made me realize how complicated it is for the end-user. Pretty > much everything that could get wrong actually got wrong: > > 1 - It took us a while to get the correct XCode version for 10.6 on Apple > developer website > > 2 - When we finally got the correct version, it failed to install because of > this bug: > http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/45841/xcode-4-2-snow-leopard-doesnt-install > > 3 - Once we finally got Xcode installed, we installed Fink and we had to > fight with proxy settings to get through my institute firewall. The default > selfupdate (through rsync) would not work, and we had to switch to > selfupdate-cvs. > > 4 - We tried to build a software package (gildas) that depends on many others > (gtk+2, gcc4.6) and this failed because of libraries in /usr/local > > 5 - Now with /usr/local out of the way the compilation goes on but it will > probably take a few more hours. > > A regular user would probably had given up before having Fink working. > Therefore I think need to think about ways to make this easier for the end > user. > > We've been discussing for a long time about distributing pre-compiled > packages; we use to have a binary distribution but it has not been updated > since 10.5. I understand that it is a lot of work for a single person to > build all the packages to make a binary distribution. Another option would be > that each package maintainer builds the package he/she maintains, signs it, > and upload it on a server somewhere (that's what Debian is doing, I think). > How difficult would it be to have something similar for Fink ? > > Cheers, > Sébastien >
1) We don't control Apple's servers. 2) I haven't seen this one, but then I'm still using Xcode 3.2.6 on 10.6. 3) We don't control what ports people's network admins leave open. 4) We _could_ have fink complain instantly if /usr/local (maybe even /opt/local) is detected and refuse to build until that (those) are moved out of the way rather than getting down to the end and saying "oops, you've got stuff we don't like". I'd be in favor of that--it wouldn't be too tricky to implement. 5) Yup. As for the binary distribution, there are several issues to address: I believe that signing packages might require a newer dpkg/apt. I've been testing updates, but (A) they still need some fixes to be fully functional, (B) the person who had been working on them (Sjors) isn't able to devote large chunks of time, and (C) I seem to be the _only_ one testing them and providing feedback. Additionally, we'd need a framework of some sort (like Debian's web of trust) to register all of the signatures for package contributors. It's very rare that a maintainer controls _all_ of the packages upon which their package depends, so we'd also need to have a policy about dependencies: e.g. if I update a package in the source distribution that has a versioned dependency on something you just updated there, and you go on holiday, then what do I need to do to be able to update _my_ package in the binary distribution? Do I sign for _your_ package and upload it? Do I have to wait for you to return? And there's the issue of the "somewhere". In principle we could continue to use Sourceforge. Based on my experience with doing fink releases lately the file release system is actually reasonably fast currently--at least for files the size of the fink source tarball. -- Alexander Hansen, Ph.D. Fink User Liaison My package updates: http://finkakh.wordpress.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ _______________________________________________ Fink-devel mailing list Fink-devel@lists.sourceforge.net List archive: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.os.apple.fink.devel Subscription management: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/fink-devel
