[packagers] becoming a packager

[J Robinson]

Actually, I see the problem is that ocaml isn't in the rpmforge repo.
I'm retrying with the epel5 repo instead of rpmforge for now. Will
report results.

On Nov 20, 2007 10:23 AM, J Robinson <jrobinson852 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello, Dag:
>
> For starters, I want to use mock to build mediawiki rpms for centos5.
> If I do 'mock --debug rebuild mediawiki-1.8.5-9.fc6.src.rpm', it fails
> because the mediawiki BuildRequires says it needs ocaml.
>
> OK. So I create a new   /etc/mock/centos-5-x86_64-rpmforge.cfg  ,
> based on /etc/mock/centos-5-x86_64.cfg, and add the following lines
> before the closing """:
>
> [rpmforge]
> name=rpmforge
> baseurl=http://apt.sw.be/redhat/el5/en/$basearch/dag
>
> and make /etc/mock/default.cfg a symlink to that file.
>
> Then I run
> mock --debug mediawiki-1.8.5-9.fc6.src.rpm
>
> But both setups report the same thing:
> Cannot find build req  ocaml >= 3.06. Exiting.
>
> how do I enable the rpmforge repo inside mock's chroot?
>
> Thanks,
> jrobinson
>
>
> On Nov 16, 2007 10:48 AM, Dag Wieers <dag at wieers.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Fri, 16 Nov 2007, J Robinson wrote:
> >
> > > On Nov 16, 2007 10:17 AM, Dag Wieers <dag at wieers.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > On Fri, 16 Nov 2007, J Robinson wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > I'm interested in becoming a packager, but I'm pretty new to building RPMs.
> > > > >
> > > > > How do I set up to become a rpmforge packager? I've rebuilt a few rpms
> > > > > from src.rpms using rpmbuild but that's about it-- I want to
> > > > > transition away from using scripts to install things from source
> > > > > towards building custom RPMs and this seems like a good way to go.
> > > > >
> > > > > I noticed that the packager's info page is pretty minimal.... any tips
> > > > > on how to get started? I'm looking at the archives now...
> > > >
> > > > First of all you need to know that RPMforge is in a transitional phase.
> > > > The new project is called rpmrepo and is a merge of existing repositories
> > > > (like atrpms, rpmforge, centos extras and more) but it is only slowly
> > > > progressing with the infrastructure.
> > > >
> > > > So in the meantime RPMforge is chewing on as before, but the website was
> > > > never really maintained (and is mostly outdated). If you consider joining
> > > > rpmrepo, your work with RPMforge is not lost, it will move to rpmrepo.
> > > >
> > > > Build RPM packages in itself is pretty straightforward, the hard part is
> > > > knowing what works and what doesn't (that is the experience). My aim with
> > > > RPMforge was to focus on SPEC file simplicity and consistency.
> > > >
> > > > This means that our SPEC files have a well-defined order and structure and
> > > > we modify SPEC files to be consistent with that. I am writing a document
> > > > that explains all these items, but most of the SPEC files in the
> > > > repository (and especially the recently updated ones) comply to these
> > > > (mostly) unwritten rules.
> > > >
> > > > The strict structure is there to make it easier to maintain SPEC files in
> > > > bulk which sometimes is necessary.
> > > >
> > > > So once you have created a SPEC file (see subversion for 4000+ examples),
> > > > you can create a package from it with the rpmbuild command, eg:
> > > >
> > > >         rpmbuild -bb something.spec
> > > >
> > > > That is the basics. :) Any specific questions yet ?
> > >
> > > thanks for the response. Here's a follow up question:
> > >
> > > how do I setup an rpmforge/rpmrepo dev env? I suspect I need to fetch
> > > the tree of spec files from svn and the source tarballs from somewhere
> > > too.
> >
> > Ok, there are 2 parts to building RPMs. The repository and the
> > buildsystem, the repository is easy:
> >
> >         svn co http://svn.rpmforge.net/svn/trunk/rpms/
> >
> > The buildsystem is more complicated because some of us have their own
> > system. But there is a more generic system that is probably where we all
> > are heading to: mock
> >
> > With mock you have to set up (configure) for each distribution you want to
> > use. These templates are available but often needs customising, which is
> > bad :-( But others can help you with mock. (I am interested to learn what
> > they have to say though)
> >
> >
> > > There are two things I want to package into rpms at present: one comes
> > > with a sample spec file which works, and one is a perl module.
> >
> > Ok, if you already have a SPEC file you can simply submit it to
> > suggests at lists.rpmforge.net and we'll add validate and add it.
> >
> > Perl modules are different, since there are 13.000 perl module
> > distributions, we have opted to semi-automate the process. I've send a
> > mail to this list that you can find in the archives that explains how it
> > works. To make the story short, just tell me the name of the module, and
> > I'll generate and add it.
> >
> > We have no real plans to add all 13.000 perl packages (yet), we tend to
> > focus on the ones that are actively maintained and the ones that are
> > popular. The popular ones we have to learn from our userbase, the active
> > ones we know because we follow to new releases. (although I am still busy
> > updating the ones we already have, after that I'll commit myself to
> > add new ones too)
> >
> >
> > > On a related note, I noticed that  the current cpan2rpm distro doesn't
> > > work (without mods) with the current version of Pod::Text (and is not
> > > in rpmforge). Perhaps I should start by making a spec that fixes the
> > > problem and building a working cpan2rpm rpm?
> >
> > We do not use cpan2pm because the resulting SPEC file does not work on all
> > distributions and we prefer a SPEC file that works on EL2, EL3, EL4 _and_
> > EL5 over one SPEC file per distribution. (because that becomes quickly
> > unmaintainable).
> >
> > We cherish the time of our volunteers :-)
> >
> >
> > > If you like, I'll combine and summarize this into a publishable document.
> >
> > That would be very nice, maybe that belongs on the rpmrepo wiki. I would
> > suggest you subscribe to the mailinglist at:
> >
> >         http://rpmrepo.org/mailman/listinfo/rpmrepo-devel
> >
> > Since you have no prior-knowledge you would be best suited to ask
> > questions and document as you learn. (And people will want to explain it
> > to you as good as possible since it will end up in the official document)
> >
> >
> > Also a planet rpmrepo would be interesting, then you could write a blog
> > article of your progress every once in a while. That would be an
> > interesting read to everybody and will no doubt lead to nice dicussions as
> > well.
> >
> > --
> >
> > --   dag wieers,  dag at wieers.com,  http://dag.wieers.com/   --
> > [Any errors in spelling, tact or fact are transmission errors]
> >
>