[oi-dev] Tasks to focus on

[Gary Mills]

On Sat, Jan 23, 2021 at 02:35:01PM -0700, Nelson H. F. Beebe wrote:
> 
> I'm part of the TeX Live team that every (northern) winter produces a
> new release; many O/S distributions then take up that release and
> repackage it according to their preferences.

That's probably what Openindiana would do too.  All software products
installed on OI systems are installed from IPS packages, the same as
on Solaris.  The packages are built from source.  Binaries are of no
use for OI packages.

First, though, there has to be demand for the software product.  I,
myself, have no interest in Tex.  In fact, I don't even know what Tex
is, except that it's used by mathematicians.  I'm not one of those.  I
have some doubts about the demand.

[...]
> However, at Utah, I make a point of doing test builds for many more,
> and I can report that this year, with newer compilers on Oracle
> Solaris 11.4, there were few problems in building a complete TeX Live
> 2021 set of binaries.  
> 
> The current status report is here:
> 
> 	http://www.math.utah.edu/pub/texlive-utah/

I've read this quickly, and already see obstacles.  OI packages have
some restrictions that may not arise when the software is installed
directly.

o All software is installed in system locations, mostly under /usr .
  Configuration files go under /etc .  Log files go under /var .  PID
  files are installed in /var/run .

o There are no private libraries, and no static libraries.  All
  libraries are shared, in both senses of the word.  Libraries are
  often supplied by other packages, and often other products.

o User software does not distinguish between Intel, AMD, or other
  compatible CPUs.

o 32 and 64-bit binaries go in the same package, although omitting
  the 32-bit versions is acceptable too.

o Packages cannot interfere with each other unless they are alternative
  versions of similar products.

The package build process installs the files into a prototype
directory.  Then the publish process builds the actual package from
files in the prototype directory.  Packages are made available by a
package server, from which users can install them on their own
systems.


-- 
-Gary Mills-		-refurb-		-Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada-