[Fedora-packaging] I wish to package some CC licensed content ...

[steve at lonetwin.net]

Hi Lyos, Michel,

Thanks for your comments and interest in this. I've been thinking  
about this continuously since i started the thread. I have also  
packaged a few[1] rpms and created a yum repo. I have not announced it  
yet, since I keep changing my mind about how best to create the rpms,  
so the rpms are not consistent in naming or packaging conventions.

Anyways, here are my thoughts on the issue:

Quoting Michel Salim <michel.sylvan at gmail.com>:

> On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 2:02 PM, Lyos Gemini Norezel
> <lyos.gemininorezel at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I don't know about your system... but my system already has 349 folders in
>> /usr/share ... which would likely be overwhelming to John Q Public.
>> I'd suggest a different, perhaps dedicated, location if it is to be
>> system-wide.
>>
> If it's under /usr, it'd really have to be somewhere in %{_datadir},
> i.e. /usr/share. And given that Fedora does not even use /opt, it's
> hard to see it going somewhere else. Although perhaps
> /usr/share/fedora-cc/{books,music,video,...} is less scattered than
> /usr/share/{books,music,video,...}.

I like this idea and I was thinking along the same lines. In addition  
to this, I was thinking about making the rpms relocatable, so that if  
a user prefers, the rpm could be installed under  
~/fedora-cc/{books,music,video,...}[2] ...etc.

There are 2 problem though:

a. Yum doesn't seem to have an option to support relocatable packages  
(AFAICT, the '--installroot' option will assume a rpmdb under the  
installroot, whereas relocatable packages just install to a different  
directory but use the regular system-wide rpmdb, I could be wrong  
tho', I haven't tried it yet)

b. You'd still have to be root to install these rpms. This however, is  
not a major issue, IMHO, since most folk are likely to install such  
content on boxes where they do have root access (eg: their  
laptops/desktops)

>
> One consideration would be to have a fedora-cc-menus similar to
> games-menus, that would make sure any contents appear in a reasonable
> place in a user's applications menu.

This is a good idea too ! Thanks !

Anyway, here is what I plan on doing:
- Create a set of packaging guidelines for myself, so that i am  
consistent in creating the specs
- Explore the possibilities offered by yum (yum plugins ??) to be able to:
     + customize the install location of the content
     + pay attention to the 'Group' header for group installations,  
instead of needing a comps.xml
- Create some rpms, buy a domain name (any suggestions ??), set up the  
repo and announce a beta :) !
- These might be totally crazy ...they are just idle thoughts as of now:
     + Explore if rpm allows for customization of headers, so that we  
may better describe the content
     + Understand the rpm format so that we can build rpms by just slapping a
     rpm header to a (cpio ??) archive instead of ^building^ (ie: going through
     the motions of %prep, %build, %install ..etc) an rpm.

However, my time being limited (and the fact that i'll be taking a 2  
week vacation starting next Wednesday), I do not know when this will  
happen. Of course I welcome comments, suggestions any any other help.


regards
- steve

PS: like i mentioned in my previous post, if people here think this  
discussion is off-topic, we can move it someplace else.

[1] Just these rpms actually:
Advanced Linux Programming - alp-1.0-1.fc10.noarch.rpm
Code Listings from Advanced Linux Programming -  
alp-listings-1.0-1.fc10.noarch.rpm
Comic book adaption of Cory Doctorow's book Futuristic Tales of the  
Here and Now - corydoctorow-ftothan-pdf-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
Free Culture, By Lawrence Lessig - MP3 version -  
freeculture-premix-mp3-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
Free Culture, By Lawrence Lessig - PDF version -  
freeculture-premix-pdf-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
Linux Device Drivers, Third Edition - ldd3-pdf-3-1.noarch.rpm

[2] I am not quite sure whether we can call it fedora-cc if it is not  
fedora endorsed. Also, since this content is not tied down to any  
distro, methinks the rpm can be installed on any rpm based distro,  
using any package manager.