jdeb 2.0

[tcurdt]

Generate the package meta data

This should be based on build system inputs. This could look like this for `maven':

<control>
  <package>(default from pom)</package>
  <version>(default from pom)</version>
  <section>(default 'misc')</section>
  <priority>(default 'low')</priority>
  <architecture>(default 'all')</architecture>
  <maintainer>(default from pom)</maintainer>

  <pre-inst src="${basedir}/someshell.sh"/>
  <pre-rm src="${basedir}/someshell.sh"/>
  <post-inst src="${basedir}/someshell.sh"/>
  <post-rm src="${basedir}/someshell.sh"/>
</control>

and for ant:

<control>
  <package>(no default)</package>
  <version>(no default)</version>
  <section>(default 'misc')</section>
  <priority>(default 'low')</priority>
  <architecture>(default 'all')</architecture>
  <maintainer>(no default)</maintainer>

  <pre-inst src="${basedir}/someshell.sh"/>
  <pre-rm src="${basedir}/someshell.sh"/>
  <post-inst src="${basedir}/someshell.sh"/>
  <post-rm src="${basedir}/someshell.sh"/>
</control>

Of course we could us attributes for ant instead. While that makes things more ant like it does not make things much easier to read IMO. Maybe we could allow both - not sure how I feel about supporting both though. MIght be more confusing than it helps.

Inline data configurations

We could use explicit nesting to define the virtual file system properties inside a debian archive tree. We would then map it to the sources. Here attributes would cut down the verboseness immensely. Unfortunately maven still doesn't support this. Which could be a point for a custom descriptor. For now the proposal looks like this:

<!-- defaults:
  dir:  own=root:root mod=750
  file: own=root:root mod=640 filter=no compress=no
-->
<data>
  <dir>
    <dir>
      <name>usr</name>
      <own>root:root</own>
      <mod>755</mod>

      <dir>
        <name>bin</bin>
        <file>
          <name>test</test>
          <own>root:root</own>
          <mod>755</mod>
          <src>${basedir}/someshell.sh</src>
          <filter>yes|no</filter>
        </file>
        <file>
          <name>test-as-link</test>
          <own>root:root</own>
          <mod>755</mod>
          <type>symbolic</type>
          <target>test</target>
        </file>
      </dir>

      <dir>
        <name>lib</bin>
        <file>
          <name>${project.build.finalName}.jar</test>
          <mod>755</mod>
          <src>${project.build.directory}/${project.build.finalName}.jar</src>
        </file>
        <file>
          <name>${project.build.finalName}.man.gz</test>
          <mod>755</mod>
          <src>somepath</src>
          <compress>gzip</compress>
        </file>
      </dir>

      <dir>
        <name>doc</bin>
        <src>${basedir}/docs</src>
        <own>auto</own>
        <mod>auto</mod>

        <dir>
          <name>examples</bin>
          <src>${basedir}/examples.tgz</src>
          <own>auto</own>
          <mod>auto</mod>
        </dir>
    </dir>
  </dir>
</data>

In ant we could use filesets to provide the be src of dir elements. To make the the mapping less verbose we could use pattern matching to define default values to specify owner, permissions and so on - or fall back to the defaults or the permissions (since java7) on disk. I assume this would break cross platform buildability though. (Could a windows user confirm?)

Question is whether we need this to be a little more dynamic and allow for generating sub trees base on some kind "generator".

<data id="root">
  <dir>
    <each>
      <id>item</id>
    </each>

<data id="item">
  <dir>
    <dir>
      <name>...</name>

But is that really needed? One could also just prepare the dir on disk like before and then just map the dir and apply patterns for permissions. For now I would omit this.

Based on the old gist https://gist.github.com/tcurdt/9275523

[Ordiel]

Would it be posible to create multiple deb packages? i.e. the same application configured for multiple clients?, i was wondering if it is possible to do that with the current version and I have not found enough info about it, I tried adding multiple packages in the control file but it only generates one pkg at the end

[ebourg]

For this level of customization I would recommend using the Ant task combined with the maven-antrun-plugin.

[tcurdt]

This issue is basically the wish list for jdeb2 - but I yet have to understand the need for multiple packages better. That said this is probably more a maven question as maven only really creates one artifact. As @ebourg already suggested - for example ant can call jdeb multiple times.

[dbyron0]

I'm motivated to have the timestamp in convertToDebianVersion be in UTC. Not sure this is a big enough thing by itself to wait for 2.0, though it is an interface change in one way of looking at it.

Also curious if there's a reason to move to java 8, or maybe better...a reason to stick with 6.

[tcurdt]

@dbyron0 plenty of good reasons to move beyond java 6 (one is access to file permissions)

[ebourg]

+1 for Java 7

[tcurdt]

For convertToDebianVersion in UTC we would need to clarify the consequences. I could possibly see that land in a pre-2 version.

[dbyron0]

Hmmm, how can I help clarify the consequences? I'm hoping we can end up using the same format (yyyyMMddHHmmss), so the only consequence to the user would be the switch to UTC. Not quite sure the best way to implement it in java 6 though off the top of my head. A java 8 way (or I suppose a joda time way with java 6) might involve changing the timestamp argument from a Date to an Instant.