I've tried new Maxima build system just few days ago
(I'm sorry that I didn't do it earlier ;). The result impressed
me much. Thank you James!
I quickly baked rpm 4 spec which generates
separate binary packages
maxima-common
maxima-clisp
maxima-gcl
...
and so on - one extra package for each
lisp system. The spec is not finished yet since
the whole build system is not completed
but later it can be added to cvs.
Suggestion for TODO:
-- add make rules for generating
.texi -> .HTML
documentation. Html is very covenant
for online browsing especially in
combination with xmaxima.
And finally I have some specific feature request
which is related to rpm build/packaging system
(maybe to debian build system too, I just don't
know debian).
Traditionally when binary rpm package
is built the install stage writes all package
files into their actual locations
/usr/bin, /usr/lib ... etc. This is not very nice
and safe thing. First, it requires root
privileges for rpm binary build. Due to this
if something goes seriously wrong the whole
system can be damaged. So modern and IMHO
the only right approach is to build rpms
by unprivileged user. The main difference
is that the whole process including install stage
is performed in user's home directory.
In particular files are installed in some
temporary directory
%buildroot/usr/bin, %buildroot/usr/lib ...
where %buildroot depends on rpm setup.
On my system %buildroot=/home/vadim/tmp.
This works fine with new build system except
several points where actual installation path is
inserted into some scripts or variables
like /usr/bin/maxima script or variables
which determines path where maxima looks
for share files. So in my particular situation
I get extra /home/vadim/tmp appended
in front of right path.
The ideal solution to the problem is to add
extra %buildroot option to make install
which forces installation into %buildroot/...
but writes paths without %buidroot
into maxima script etc.
Is it too hard?
Best wishes,
Vadim
--
[ Vadim V. Zhytnikov <vvzhy@mail.ru> <vvzhy@td.lpi.ac.ru> ]