[csw-maintainers] [csw-buildfarm] findutils and its database on the farm

[Sebastian Kayser]

Chris Reece wrote:
> On Tue, June 2, 2009 9:05 pm, Sebastian Kayser wrote:
>> Could you tell us, what exactly you were missing about the documentation
>> so that we can improve on it? Any feedback appreciated (off-list is also fine
>> if you prefer to).
> 
> Specifically, no.  I recall being daunted by finding three versions of GAR,
> none of which appeared to have a full set of GAR newbie documentation.  I
> found a "Getting started with GAR" document that, depending on which link I
> followed to it, from where: was not found; contained a page blank except for
> "redirect"; or was there, but was listed under some manner of "this is for an
> older GAR -- here be dragons" warning.
> 
> I was in a hurry, may have missed something and, believe me, I know what it's
> like to not have enough hours in the day.  Documentation's no damned fun.
> 
> Your suggestion of hand-holding to en-GAR findutils sounds like a fine idea,
> if you've the time.  I'd rather put these things in a format that they'll be
> useful, for what that's worth.
> 
> But if I am just being dense, feel free to point me at the docs that you know
> tell me everything I need and tell me to RTFM.

A couple of options.

Option 1
--------
Send me your current build script (or instructions on how to follow the
build process you are currently using). I will then GAR-ize and submit
it to the repository so you can have a look at it and maybe tweak it a
bit. Doing this for others i have seen that this seems to give people a
pretty good idea of how GAR works.

You can then GAR-ize your remaining packages.

Option 2
--------
If you want to learn GAR by yourself, follow the steps below. You might
take shortcuts if some points seem obvious to you.

1) Read [1] for setting up your local build enviroment.
2) Check out gperf from the repository which is a known to work,
   basic build-description. Then build it along with reading the
   build explanation. [2,3]
3) Do the same for dtracetoolkit to see how different packaging
   requirements are handled. [4]
4) Peek into the GAR variable reference along with its referenced
   build descriptions to see how other packages (with varying
   complexity) are built. [5]

Btw. this is roughly the way that the GAR wiki main page [6] is
currently structured.

Option 3
--------
I will hang out on our IRC channel this evening (#opencsw on
freenode.net, starting ~8pm CEST). Come by if i you prefer some Q&A. :)

Sebastian

[1] http://apps.sf.net/trac/gar/wiki/GarSetup
[2] http://apps.sf.net/trac/gar/wiki/GarRepository#Checkingoutonepackage
[3] http://apps.sf.net/trac/gar/wiki/ExplainedGperf
[4] http://apps.sf.net/trac/gar/wiki/ExplainedDtracetoolkit
[5] http://apps.sf.net/trac/gar/wiki/GAR%20Variable%20Reference
[6] http://gar.sf.net