Hi Paul

Yes that's right. It's quite clever actually. RPM can find perl, python
and tcl dependencies automatically.

The file /usr/lib/rpm/perl.req does the scanning for dependencies.

If Xinha can function satisfactorily without Aspell, for example if the
file in question is only used if a configuration option is set, etc,
then this include should be option in the way I mentioned, like this:

eval { use Text::Aspell } or die $@;

If the 'use' statement is entered in this way then RPM is clever enough
to realise that this is not a REQUIREMENT for the software being
packaged, but some kind of OPTIONAL thing, so it doesn't make it a
requirement for the RPM.

BTW unfortunately RPM can't track PHP dependencies. It would be nice if
RPMs for PEAR, ADODB, Smarty, etc, were available. I don't think such a
thing is inconceivable, so maybe someone will do it before long. Are
there DEB packages for these?

Part of building an RPM is the process of patching the original source
distribution. Usually this would just require a few tweaks in the 'make
install' process but in the case of Campsite there are a lot of files
containing configuration options, and a lot of scripts which are
dynamically generated, so it's not just a case of copying files from the
'build' tree into the root filesystem. I have to work out the minimal
amount of patching that allows a stable Campsite RPM to be built -- too
much patching at the RPM 'spec' will be unmaintainable as new Campsite
versions emerge.

I'm pretty close now though to a working RPM. Stay tuned!

JP

Paul Baranowski wrote:

>Hi John-
>"Text::Aspell" is still in Xinha. Can you explain this RPM process a
>bit more? Does it autmatically scan your files looking for
>dependencies? Thats what it sounds like...
>- Paul
>
>
>John Pye wrote:
>
>
>>Hi Paul and everyone
>>
>>I've been working on an RPM installation of Campsite 2.2.2 just now and
>>one of the issues I has was that there are dependencies in HTMLAREA on
>>Text::Aspell and HTML::Mason. Can I suggest that you check whether Xinha
>>has this same dependencies, and if so, edit the Xinha files such that
>>instead of
>>
>>"use Text::Aspell;" you use something like "eval { use Text::Aspell } or
>>die $@;"
>>
>>See /usr/lib/rpm/perl.req on your RPM machine for info on this. This
>>will instead cause an error message (you can make the error handling
>>more elaborate of course) when the perl module is required. It has the
>>benefit of making RPM think that this is an *optional* requirement in
>>the campsite code. A resulting RPM can then be built which doesn't
>>require these Perl components to be installed.
>>
>>I wouldn't be bothered by this except for the fact that when I tried
>>"cpan install Text::Aspell" I got a whole stack of errors... for some
>>reason it's not installing on my machine. (An issue which I'll take up
>>elsewhere). So clearly anyone who tries to /fulfil /this requirement is
>>also going to have problems.-
>>
>>The HTMLAREA dependency on Mason seems to be completely pointless. It's
>>used by a file in the HTMLAREA distro which is used to package the
>>source code for redistribution. So I suggest you remove the script which
>>has that requirement.
>>
>>Hopefully having sorted out the issues with an RPM install for Campsite
>>2.2.2 it should be a simple enough job to go for 2.3 when that is ready
>>to go.
>>
>>JP
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
>

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