[maemo-developers] Reviewing beginner packaging docs

[From: Ville M. Vainio]

Sorry for top posting, I'm doing it to avoid addressing our specific points ;-).

1) You can use my "qdebwiz" python script to package a stereotypical,
simple Qt application for N900:

git clone git://gitorious.org/qdebwiz/qdebwiz.git

README:

http://gitorious.com/qdebwiz/qdebwiz/blobs/master/README

tl;dr: it populates a debian/ folder according to stuff you have in
(also autogenerated) ini file. The debian/rules currently uses CDBS -
works fine on autobuilder and linux madde, doesn't work in windows
madde. With a few canned tweaks, your package should be OK for Ovi
store as well.

2) If you are not in a hurry, wait for Nokia Qt SDK 1.1 betas. NQS 1.1
(w/ Qt Creator 2.1) has support for "real" packaging, as opposed to
development-mode-only support in earlier NQS releases.

On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 9:48 PM, Dave Neary <dneary at maemo.org> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> With Dave, we did a pretty good review of the getting started &
> packaging docs a few months ago, which got people to the point where
> they could get a hello, world package written & packaged as a .deb.
>
> We didn't go further than that, and so I've spent some time this week
> acting as a brand new developer, going from virgin laptop to uploading
> my first package to extras-devel - and there are a few gaps in the docs.
>
> This email is just to point some of those out - and to sollicit help in
> getting things fixed. Please try to look at these docs with the eyes of
> a new developer to see what information you might need to get up &
> running in half an hour, which just isn't there.
>
> IRC has been helpful (esp. timeless, Stskeeps, Venemo) but I'm making
> only slow progress.
>
> So far, here are a few remarks:
> * We point people getting started to the SDK page: from
> http://maemo.org/development to
> http://wiki.maemo.org/Documentation/Maemo_5_Final_SDK_Installation - but
> once you have a Scratchbox SDK up & running, we didn't tell people how
> to get started developing. I added a "where to next" section that points
> at http://wiki.maemo.org/Packaging - the best reference I'm aware of for
> packaging a new "Hello, World" application
>
> * On the Packaging page, we do a pretty good job of explaining the
> basics of autotools, and standard Debian packaging. However, if you try
> to copy the .deb which you will have at the end of the "Packaging a
> .deb" section onto an N900 and install it, it wouldn't work because the
> Section: field in debian/control wasn't mentioned up to that point. I
> added a section "Testing your package" which goes into some of the
> things you need to do to get a package to install.
>
> * At this stage, your package still doesn't have an icon and an entry in
> the applications menu - which is what I'm having trouble with now. In
> fact, the entire section "Maemo-specific packaging information" has
> entirely too many unstated assumptions. Just to give three examples:
>  * We talk about sections (and point to the packaging guidelines)
> without talking about which file we need to add a section to & where in
> the file
>  * The Desktop files section points to a [[Desktop file format]] page
> which does nothing to explain how to write a .desktop file
>  * The paragraph about .install files. There is a line: "You can add
>    the desktop file to the .install file for your application so that
>    it is installed to the correct place, for example, if you have
>    debian/application.install, adding the line:
>        application.desktop usr/share/applications/hildon"
>    Now - do I need to create a file called "application.install" or is
> application to be replaced by my package name? How about
> application.desktop? I *think* that I need to s/application/package name
> in both... but it's not clear.
>
> So I'm currently stuck trying to figure out how to get an icon file
> installed & how to write & install a .desktop file which will load it
> up. The advice I've gotten so far is good - but can mostly be summarised
> as "download a working package & look to see how they did it". And I
> know I'm still missing a bunch of stuff which will be necessary for the
> package to go into extras-devel.
>
> What I would like to see us do is better document the installation
> process (which files get installed & how, what's Debian specific, what's
> Maemo specific, what applies to everyone), and better document the
> .desktop format (like, say, explaining which fields have important
> values that you must set, which fields go together but are facultative,
> and which fields are mostly decorative/informative) and basically make
> it trivially easy for someone to create a package, given working source
> code, which will pass muster for extras-devel, and understand what each
> step is useful for along the way.
>
> Does anyone have some time over the next couple of days to help make
> this stuff rock? I'd be very happy to see us split pages off (say: a
> .desktop format reference separate from the "here's the 3 required
> fields in a .desktop file, here's where you create it, here's how you
> make sure it gets installed in the right place" basic docs.
>
> Thanks!
> Dave.
>
> --
> maemo.org docsmaster
> Email: dneary at maemo.org
> Jabber: bolsh at jabber.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> maemo-developers mailing list
> maemo-developers at maemo.org
> https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-developers
>



-- 
Ville M. Vainio @@ Forum Nokia