Hey Gunnar,<br><br>Thanks for your work on this. While I like RubyGems, I also used Ruby extras packages in the past on Debian and Ubuntu servers because of ease of install and stability.<br><br>The GitHub tarball is indeed dynamically generated, but it's size can be checked to see if it has changed---you don't have to rely on timestamp.<br>
<br>When you said "page with 2 links", what do you mean when you say the other link points to a "blessed" tarball? If that is some packaging terminology, you'll have to explain it to me.<br><br>- Mislav<br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, May 21, 2008 at 1:44 AM, Gunnar Wolf <<a href="mailto:gwolf@gwolf.org">gwolf@gwolf.org</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Hi,<br>
<br>
I have just prepared a package for will_paginate [1] for its inclusion in<br>
Debian, and in a couple of days it will become installable via apt-get<br>
for users of our unstable branch (and will, of course, in due time<br>
arrive to the official release). I am uploading it as part of the<br>
Debian pkg-ruby-extras team [2], a team that collaboratively maintains<br>
currently 86 Ruby modules.<br>
<br>
We strive to make Debian-using Ruby programmers' lifes simpler by<br>
providing pakcages for the most popular modules. As you know, Ruby<br>
Gems are the most popular way of distributing Ruby - But it is not<br>
really compatible with large-scale installations requiring stable (and<br>
long-supported) versions of the software.<br>
<br>
Where am I trying to get to? Basically, your module has been a<br>
pleasure to package. It took me only some hours - Even though I am<br>
still learning my way around Git. I packaged tag 2.3.2 (of course, as<br>
version 2.3.2). However, in order to do this, I did a 'git checkout<br>
2.3.2', then removed the Git directory, and prepared a tar.gz with the<br>
contents. I found out too late I could have requested GitHub to<br>
prepare a tar.gz for 2.3.2 [3]... But I fear this is auto-generated on<br>
request (i.e. I requested for the file twice, and although the<br>
contents are the same, the files themselves are different - timestamps<br>
do not match, I guess)<br>
<br>
It is very important for us, QA-wise, to be able to have an official<br>
original .tar.gz to refer to, the "pristine sources", guaranteeing the<br>
users we deviate as least as possible from the authors, and helping us<br>
target a specific release. Also, as we track several dozens of<br>
modules, we use some tools to track each of the packages [4].<br>
<br>
If you were able to provide a page, even a static ugly one, with links<br>
to a statically generated and blessed .tar.gz, you would make our work<br>
significatively easier. Please consider doing so.<br>
<br>
Just as two final links (which we have to update, a couple of points<br>
are somewhat updated. Specifically, we have worked around our request<br>
of "use setup.rb" - I did use setup.rb on your module, and it worked<br>
beautifully :) ), please take a look at our position on RubyGems [5]<br>
and our request to upstream developers [6].<br>
<br>
Thank you very much,<br>
<br>
[1] <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=482073" target="_blank">http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=482073</a><br>
<br>
[2] <a href="http://pkg-ruby-extras.alioth.debian.org/" target="_blank">http://pkg-ruby-extras.alioth.debian.org/</a><br>
<br>
[3] <a href="http://github.com/mislav/will_paginate/tarball/2.3.2" target="_blank">http://github.com/mislav/will_paginate/tarball/2.3.2</a><br>
<br>
[4] <a href="http://pkg-ruby-extras.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/qareport.cgi" target="_blank">http://pkg-ruby-extras.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/qareport.cgi</a><br>
<br>
[5] <a href="http://pkg-ruby-extras.alioth.debian.org/rubygems.html" target="_blank">http://pkg-ruby-extras.alioth.debian.org/rubygems.html</a><br>
<br>
[6] <a href="http://pkg-ruby-extras.alioth.debian.org/upstream-devs.html" target="_blank">http://pkg-ruby-extras.alioth.debian.org/upstream-devs.html</a><br>
<font color="#888888">--<br>
Gunnar Wolf - <a href="mailto:gwolf@iiec.unam.mx">gwolf@iiec.unam.mx</a> - (+52-55)5623-0154 / 1451-2244<br>
PGP key 1024D/8BB527AF 2001-10-23<br>
Fingerprint: 0C79 D2D1 2C4E 9CE4 5973 F800 D80E F35A 8BB5 27AF<br>
</font><br>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----<br>
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux)<br>
<br>
iD8DBQFIM2JO2A7zWou1J68RAthPAJ4vVGECXNmvEaVISWZjuJJGCzYL9gCgxhKC<br>
1KBLXH30kjCBRwkqcY/v8lA=<br>
=EPsv<br>
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----<br>
<br></blockquote></div><br>