news on JPackage

[Fernando Nasser]

Karsten 'quaid' Wade wrote:
> We've been hunting down answers on how to work across JPackage and
> Fedora.  The news is mixed with a bright future.  Your help now makes
> the bright future more obtainable.
> 
> The reality is that while JPackage and Fedora packages are very alike
> and the packing rules are more closely aligned, there is no automagic to
> make it easier to maintain one package across both systems.  By acting
> now within both communities, our up front work can help support a goal
> of minimizing or removing barriers between the two package repositories.
> 
> Fedora requires everything it needs to build to be entirely in the build
> system.  It cannot rely upon outside repositories.  This is a
> fundamental design decision.  That means that nearly the same package
> from JPackage must be rebuilt in the Fedora system.
> 
> The goal is to find a way to make moving packages between the systems
> fully transparent.  This cuts down significantly on package maintainers
> work while allowing JPackage to service the wider RPM audience.  Jesse
> Keating, Fedora Release Engineer, is one person leading this effort.  It
> sounds as if help is still needed within Fedora and JPackage to move
> this ahead.  There are still decisions to be made on how to proceed, we
> may influence that by acting within both communities.
> 
> In the meantime, the best process to follow is this:
> 
>         1. Get Java libraries working in JPackage
>         
>         2. Once there, import those packages in to Fedora
>            - This will be much faster with most of the work already done
>         from the JPackage review
>         
>         3. Once forked, you need to update packages in both locations,
>         syncing changes back/forth
> 

Right.  But I would change the 3 to "Fix it on JPackage and merge back 
into Fedora".  We've been doing this for the packages we maintain and it 
saves some time as we basically do it once.  It is the same CVS dist 
setup, so no problem there.

The above process becomes easier if the same person maintains the 
package in both JPackage and Fedora.  JPackage.org has a yet to be 
announced way to allow "package maintainers" to work on individual 
packages, but it can be set up for anyone here that wants/needs it.

> If we can make a custom of doing these practices, it helps make the
> infrastructure level changes easier to occur.
> 
> Let me know your thoughts/questions on this, I'd like to codify this on
> the wiki as our policy for ISVs.
> 

That is is agood idea.

Cheers,
Fernando