[gentoo-user] Questions for my first ebuild

[gentoo-user] Questions for my first ebuild

[Walter Dnes]

  I intend to get the Silicon Dust HDHomerun dual tuner box.  It has a
linux library and CLI plus a separate gtk+ GUI.  The linux source comes
with a makefile that puts stuff in /usr/local.  But I want at least a
"wrapper" ebuild so that Portage knows about the files, and can manage
them.  I'd prefer to write my own ebuild rather than depend on somebody
else to always have the most recent version supported somwehere in
layman.  I've RTFM'd a lot, including
http://devmanual.gentoo.org/ebuild-writing/index.html but am still
unsure about a few things.  Here's my setup so far...

* The latest file is
http://download.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/libhdhomerun_20100213.tgz
(underscore instead of hyphen, bleagh).
* I've set PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" in /etc/make.conf
* I've actually created /usr/local/portage/media-tv
* my ebuild file in media-tv is named libhdhomerun-20100213.ebuild
* here it is so far...

# Copyright 1999-2006 Gentoo Foundation
# Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2
# $Header: $

DESCRIPTION="HD Homerun networked TV tuner base library and API"
ACTUAL_P="${PN}_${PV}"
SRC_URI="http://download.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/${ACTUAL_P}.tgz"
HOMEPAGE="http://www.silicondust.com/downloads/linux"
KEYWORDS="x86"
SLOT="0"
LICENSE="LGPL-3"
IUSE=""
RESTRICT="test"

src_install () {
emake -j1 DESTDIR="${D}" install || die "make failed"
dobin hdhomerun_config
dolib libhdhomerun.so
dodoc README
insinto /usr/include/local/libhdhomerun
doins *.h
}

  Now for the questions...
1) do I need to create /usr/local/portage/distfiles?
2) the provided Makefile is supposed to put everything into the
/usr/local hierarchy.  Does portage/emerge over-ride that, and if so,
what do I have to do to get send all files to the /usr/local hierarchy?
3) any glaring errors ?

  I intend to pick it up next week, so I won't be able to test it
immediately.  I do want my laptop to be ready to go when I bring the
tuner box home.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>

Re: [gentoo-user] Questions for my first ebuild

[Amit Dor-Shifer]

Walter Dnes wrote:
>   I intend to get the Silicon Dust HDHomerun dual tuner box.  It has a
> linux library and CLI plus a separate gtk+ GUI.  The linux source comes
> with a makefile that puts stuff in /usr/local.  But I want at least a
> "wrapper" ebuild so that Portage knows about the files, and can manage
> them.  I'd prefer to write my own ebuild rather than depend on somebody
> else to always have the most recent version supported somwehere in
> layman.  I've RTFM'd a lot, including
> http://devmanual.gentoo.org/ebuild-writing/index.html but am still
> unsure about a few things.  Here's my setup so far...
>
> * The latest file is
> http://download.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/libhdhomerun_20100213.tgz
> (underscore instead of hyphen, bleagh).
> * I've set PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" in /etc/make.conf
> * I've actually created /usr/local/portage/media-tv
> * my ebuild file in media-tv is named libhdhomerun-20100213.ebuild
> * here it is so far...
>
> # Copyright 1999-2006 Gentoo Foundation
> # Distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2
> # $Header: $
>
> DESCRIPTION="HD Homerun networked TV tuner base library and API"
> ACTUAL_P="${PN}_${PV}"
> SRC_URI="http://download.silicondust.com/hdhomerun/${ACTUAL_P}.tgz"
> HOMEPAGE="http://www.silicondust.com/downloads/linux"
> KEYWORDS="x86"
> SLOT="0"
> LICENSE="LGPL-3"
> IUSE=""
> RESTRICT="test"
>
> src_install () {
> emake -j1 DESTDIR="${D}" install || die "make failed"
> dobin hdhomerun_config
> dolib libhdhomerun.so
> dodoc README
> insinto /usr/include/local/libhdhomerun
> doins *.h
> }
>
>   Now for the questions...
> 1) do I need to create /usr/local/portage/distfiles?
>   
Nope. DISTDIR is /usr/portage/distfiles, even for overlay ebuilds.
> 2) the provided Makefile is supposed to put everything into the
> /usr/local hierarchy.  Does portage/emerge over-ride that, and if so,
> what do I have to do to get send all files to the /usr/local hierarchy?
>   
Don't know.
But... AFAIK, '/usr/local' is not a location favored by ebuilds. On my 
server it's virtually empty:
 ~ # find /usr/local/ -type f -exec qfile '{}' \;
app-portage/layman (/usr/local/portage/layman/.keep_app-portage_layman-0)

I'd attempt to have my ebuild install to /usr. Most probably that's a 
very common procedure when moving from barebones makefile to portage. If 
make can't help you w/that (e.g. --prefix /usr or something like that), 
try browsing other ebuilds. qgrep is a handy tool for that.
> 3) any glaring errors ?
>
>   I intend to pick it up next week, so I won't be able to test it
> immediately.  I do want my laptop to be ready to go when I bring the
> tuner box home.
>
>   

Re: [gentoo-user] Questions for my first ebuild

[Mark Knecht]

On Sat, Apr 17, 2010 at 10:03 PM, Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org> wrote:
>  I intend to get the Silicon Dust HDHomerun dual tuner box.

Walt,
   I own an HDHR and it's been a great little box for the last couple
of years. I hope you enjoy it as much as we have.

   That said watch out for what's happening to us. We're on the cable
giant Comcast's network and they are quickly moving toward removing
nearly all Clear QAM from their transmissions meaning we will be left
with very little that the HDHR can tune. Some people report on the
Myth lists that they are down to little more than OTA and cable access
channels. It hasn't happened to me yet, but I think the writing is on
the wall. More Comcast people are moving toward the cheap DTAs and
controlling them to change channels, but that's SDA only. HD requires
a STB.

   What a mess!

   Anyway, you might be in Europe or Canada or someplace with better
consumer protection laws than the U.S. Just be aware of what you might
be up against, and if it doesn't matter then enjoy the HDHR because
it's a great little product.

Cheers,
Mark

Re: [gentoo-user] Questions for my first ebuild

[Walter Dnes]

On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 08:07:59AM -0700, Mark Knecht wrote

>    Anyway, you might be in Europe or Canada or someplace with better
> consumer protection laws than the U.S.

  I'm in Toronto, Canada, and our situation is worse than yours.  Cell
phone data plans are exorbitantly expensive, the telcos and cablecos are
*REDUCING* monthly gigabyte allowances, cable/satellite is rather
expensive, and we've never had unencrypted QAM HDTV channels.

> Just be aware of what you might be up against, and if it doesn't
> matter then enjoy the HDHR because it's a great little product.

  Given the cost of cable, especially HDTV, I'm strictly OTA.  Toronto
is an exception to the regular Canadian OTA TV scene.  All but one of
the local stations is already broadcasting digital, and I can get them
and most of the Buffalo stations with an indoor antenna.  It helps that
I'm in a 6th floor condo with a clear view to the CN Tower (Toronto
locals) and Grand Island, New York (the Buffalo TV "antenna farm").
Plus I get a news+movies station out of Hamilton.  The total is 16
physical digital channels and 3 non-duplicate sub-channels.

  And "coming soon" is TheCoolTV http://www.thecooltv.com/  The list at
http://www.thecooltv.com/THECOOLTV_SinclairTelevisionGroup.php shows
Buffalo as one of the "Cities About to Get COOL!".  The rollout is due
sometime in April or May.  It'll be a sub-channel on one of the 2
Sinclair stations in Buffalo (WUTV-FOX or WNYO-MyTV).

  There's also one educational channel here in Toronto that is still
analogue-only, which the HDHomerun can't get.  They'll flash-cut to
digital at the deadline.  Canada's analogue shutdown is August 31, 2011,
assuming no delays.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>