I originally responded to another thread. Here is what I said: < I gave this a try some time ago and was bummed down by some things. I dont like nodejs enough, and npm devs seems to not care about centrally/globally installed packages. There are some npm packages that have to be modified so they can work when globally installed and it gets boring after a while. npm packages tend to be really small so one package can have a really high number of deps.
If anybody is interested in this, check out my repo with npm packages[0] and a really simple g-npm tool[1] to generate ebuilds for them. These tools might be outdated cause I don't use nodejs anymore and I dont care much about it. Feel free to ping me if you have questions. Cheers, [0] https://github.com/neurogeek/gentoo-overlay (I might have something more recent somewhere) [1] https://github.com/neurogeek/g-npm > On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 11:50 PM, Tim Boudreau <niftin...@gmail.com> wrote: > FWIW, I suspect npm is here to stay, and it has a facility for installing > system-wide utilities; and NodeJS is both usable and convenient for > system-level scripting which has no connection to webapps, and has the > ability to build native code that integrates with NodeJS code as well. > > IMO, it would be pretty insane to write packages that duplicate npm > packages; support within portage for installing things with it makes more > sense. I've occasionally toyed with the idea of a webapp that exposes > packages in npm as ebuilds and generates the required metadata on the fly, > so anything in the npm repository would simply *be* a Gentoo package. Not > sure the idea is viable, but it might be. If that existed, and then some > known-stable subset of packages for which system-wide installation is > appropriate could be mirrored in the portage tree, that would probably be > ideal. > > -Tim > > > > On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 8:48 PM, IAN DELANEY <del...@iinet.com.au> wrote: > >> >> >> Begin forwarded message: >> >> Date: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 08:45:21 +0800 >> From: IAN DELANEY <idel...@gentoo.org> >> To: gentoo-pyt...@lists.gentoo.org >> Subject: reviewboard and its bugs >> >> cancel the gentoo-python@lists, was intended for gentoo-dev@lists >> >> The package reviewboard has reached a stage of warranting this >> submission to the ML. A simple search of reviewboard in bugzilla lists >> a few 'user submitted' bugs and no less than 3 sec bugs. This package I >> added initially because interest was expressed mainly by my final >> mentor and the other (prior) co-maintainer. Because of changes to >> reviewboard upstream, we need a new eclass and category to cater to >> certain js packages. >> >> Now wishing to re-write all I have already written in the bugs, in >> summary, reviewboard has become unworkable by the developers of >> reviewboard itself going down the path of nodejs. Enter npm. >> npm was an unknown to me until Djblets and django-pipeline ebuilds >> failed due to the absence of UglifyJS and some related js deps. On >> being informed of ebuilds for this and related deps in the overlay of >> neurogeek, I discovered they required npm which it seems comes in >> nodejs. The response drawn by fellow devs over npm is in my limited >> experience unprecedented. The overall reaction was leave it and don't >> go there. What became apparent from the ebulds in neurogeek's overlay >> was that these deps didn't lend themselves well to writing ebuilds for >> them for portage. In the overlay there is in fact an npm eclass to >> overseer their installation into the system. >> >> After some somewhat reluctant discussion of npm in irc, it has at least >> been suggested that the use of nodejs' UglifyJS in django-pipeline >> could be patched out to relieve us all of any reliance or involvement >> of npm to install these js oriented deps. That has not ofcourse been >> attempted or tested and allows for the probability of breaking Djblets >> and or reviewboard which I suspect has been written by reviewboard >> developers to explicitly depend on and call these deps. The decision it >> seems isn't whether to allows npm into portage, it already comes with >> nodejs correct me if I misunderstand. The question is whether to >> support this npm installing packages into a gentoo system by ebuilds >> essentially outside of portage. This requires an eclass and it has >> been suggested a whole new category for portage under which to >> categorise these npm type packages. Such an eclass has already been >> written, however, that it has never been added to portage along with js >> style packages in the overlay, to me at least, strongly suggests the >> author always had reservations with its addition. >> >> There is ofcourse the alternative; to write ebuilds to install these >> packages without npm involvement. This would still require an >> eclass anyway. Either way, nodejs and java script are totally outside >> the realm of pythonic packages and are therefore outside my realm >> of knowledge and experience. Reviewboard developers have essentially >> created a huge dilemma for users of reviewboard in gentoo by going >> electing to use this js 'toolchain'. While I normally go to any >> lengths to maintain any and all packages within the python realm, this >> reviewboard has gone way beyond that realm. Until this, its >> underbelly was pure python and posed no real problem. Now I have a >> growing and unwelcome list of bugs of this package assigned to me as >> the sole remaining maintainer which are now unworkable. >> >> The real problem here is that there is an apparent keen set of would >> be users of this package, one of whom is a gentoo dev, who is to be >> found in at least one of those bugs. To delete or mask the package >> amounts to a clean solution, and also abandons gentoo users looking >> to have the package made work for them. >> >> In summary, because of changes to reviewboard upstream, we need a new >> eclass and category to write ebuilds to these packages and add them to >> portage. >> >> >> >> -- >> kind regards >> >> Ian Delaney >> >> >> -- >> kind regards >> >> Ian Delaney >> >> > > > -- > http://timboudreau.com > -- Jesus Rivero (Neurogeek) Gentoo Developer
