Forum OpenACS Q&A: Can we convert openacs packages as RPM for REDHAT and SUSE

Collapse
1: Can we convert openacs packages as RPM for REDHAT and SUSE
Posted by VenuMadhav Deevi on 05/22/03 09:46 AM
Hi,
  Can we able to convert entire openacs packages (what i had developed) into RPMs for REDHAT and SUSE for making installation easy.
Collapse
2: Re: Can we convert openacs packages as RPM for REDHAT and SUSE (response to 1)
Posted by Malte Sussdorff on 05/22/03 10:41 AM
Well, for this to happen we would first have to make sure OpenACS does install as an RPM (or did I miss something ?).

If you are knowledgable about RPM and dependencies you can most likely take the installation recommendations you find at https://openacs.org/doc/openacs-4-6-2/unix-install.html, amend them to support the various distributions RPM's for Postgres and AOLserver (or convince them to use our standards and compilation :)) and prepare a package for the OpenACS core that will install OpenACS in the appropriate directory and tweak AOLserver to listen at localhost:8000 for setup purposes. Furthermore load the data into the datamodell of the already created openacs user.

Once this is done, we would have to get someone to write a small script that offers the various packages as APM files for download from the website of OpenACS.org. And make it more comfortable to load these (e.g. just let the APM point to the location for the overview page and get a list like you get when you install the package) to your computer. Or you could make an RPM out of it that would install the files in the folder according to the standards set forth in the above section. My only concern would be what happens if you move your server to a different physical location (e.g. change /web/openacs to /web/myservicename).

To sum it up, there is a lot more involved than just creating RPMs for the distributions. And this is the reason why RPMs are so rare within the OpenACS domain.

Collapse
3: Re: Can we convert openacs packages as RPM for REDHAT and SUSE (response to 1)
Posted by Jade Rubick on 05/22/03 06:24 PM
It seems to me that we're not really to the point where people use OpenACS "out of the box" without much customization. We're getting close to that point, and with edit-this-page and CMS maturing, I think we may get there in a year or two.

I think this is very much a goal to work towards, however. Adoption of OpenACS will balloon if we make the process easier than it is now.

Joel's doing good work in the meantime.

I think a good subgoal, however, would be to make installation of the components underneath OpenACS easier.

For Debian, for example, being able to apt-get install Aolserver, Postgres, and so on would make the process pretty easy. Joining that with CVS, and you could conceivably make an entire install in a half an hour or less. That would be nice, but it would require a lot of work from some dedicated volunteers.

I know Roberto has done some work on Debian packages. We'd need more testing of those Debian packages, and then a blessing of them in the official documentation.

Of course, all of this requires volunteers. 😊