[gentoo-dev] best practices for java ebuilds

[gentoo-dev] best practices for java ebuilds

[Matthew Kennedy]

At the momemt I am creating ebuilds for my favoutite stuff. When
packaging Java packages though, should I compile them from source
always? I noticed Ant (dev-java/ant) is an example such a package. It
seems to me, that there is little point in compiling most Java items if
a binary is already available in a timely and reliable manner (meaning a
binary build comes out at the approximate same time the new source
release does).

So might this be the rule of thumb: If some Java application/binary is
already available from the authors site in both binary and source form,
and the author provides a binary build frequently and reliably, then use
the binary from the ebuild?

Thanks,

Matt

Re: [gentoo-dev] best practices for java ebuilds

[Matthew Kennedy]

I guess another point to consider is the complexity the maintainer faces
which compiling non-trivial java items. Build configuration and
compilation in the java world is not as refined as what autotools
provide for native compiled items. The build procedure for java items
differs from one item to the next... Though Ant does seem to becoming a
standard way to build, it doesn't address build configuration well. imho
anyway. 

On Sun, 2002-02-03 at 12:33, Matthew Kennedy wrote:
> So might this be the rule of thumb: If some Java application/binary is
> already available from the authors site in both binary and source form,
> and the author provides a binary build frequently and reliably, then use
> the binary from the ebuild?

Re: [gentoo-dev] best practices for java ebuilds

[Karl Trygve Kalleberg]

We want to compile from sources always, because:

1) The user might want to tweak the source code before compiling
2) The user might want to apply a third-party patch
3) The binary packages supplied by the authors do not always contain
   the javadoc documentation
4) We like source code :)

There is also a point to be made about consistency: In general, the user
should be able to assume that when using an ebuild, the system will
automatically obtain the source code for him. We are (slowly) working on
binary packages for all ebuilds, so when users are 100% certain they do
not want to spend time compiling from the sources, they can install the
binary packages instead. In this case, it would be a bit peculiar if
binary-only was available in the source-only tree, too, and no sources
were available.

So in short: We try hard (but not hard enough, as evidenced by the
tomcat-4.0.1 ebuild) to compile all Java packages from sources. Any
package that does not, should be considered faulty, and a bug report
should be filed.


Kind regards,

Karl T