Ubuntu Packaging
News / Announcements
We need voluteers and support. Please see: #Actions_where_help_is_needed actions requiring helping hands!
Organisation
- GRASS packages are provided by different repositories.
- They are mostely distihuished by their level of up-to-dateness in respect to the GRASS source code.
Overview and Sources
An overview is given in the following table:
| Repository | Type | Update Frequency | Status | Current version | Source | Details | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Official Ubuntu Repositories | universe | Only updated before each Ubuntu release | Stable at time of import | 6.4.2-2 | Imported from Debian repositories | Overview | |
| UbuntuGIS | stable | ? | Stable at time of packaging | 6.4.2 | ? | ubuntugis-stable | |
| UbuntuGIS | unstable | ? | Unstable at time of packaging | 6.4.2~x | ? | ubuntugis-unstable | |
| UbuntuGIS | testing | ? | Very unstable at time of packaging | 6.4.3-1~x 7.0-1~x |
? | ubuntugis-testing | |
| GRASS PPA | stable | Daily upon change of GRASS source code | Most recent fixes and backports to stable series | 6.4.2+2 | Imported from GRASS SVN of releasebranch_6_4 | GRASS Packages: Stable Series | |
| GRASS PPA | unstable | Daily upon change of GRASS source code | Very unstable but latest development code | 7.0.x | Imported from GRASS SVN trunk | GRASS Packages: Development Series |
GRASS on Launchpad (LP)
Organisation
- GRASS team
- GRASS team
- individuals which are dedicated to work on GRASS packaging for Ubuntu
- Any user and developer is free and welcome to join!
- New active members are needed!
- Umbrella organisation for activities around GRASS on Launchpad
- GRASS GIS Project
- The GRASS LP project
- Umbrella project for all activities related to the GRASS core such as
- other future projects could be
- Automatic packaging of AddOns
- Further integration of GRASS in Ubntu
- Link to Live-CD projects such as OSGeo-Live
Others (UbuntuGIS)
Source Code
The source code is managed in a structure corresponding to the above organisation
- Latest SVN imports
- stable from SVN releasebranch_6_4
- development from SVN trunk
- Bazaar branches for “grass” package in Ubuntu
- Used by Ubuntu packages for the official packages
GRASS Packaging
Offical Ubuntu Packages
These are based on the DebianGIS packages by Frankie and Hamish, packaging rules stored in DebianGIS's git repo -- see the debian/README.debian file in the GRASS source code for details. The official Ubuntu packages are automatically rebuilt from the current Debian packages every six months. If a newer version shows up in the Debian archives before the upcoming Ubuntu release is frozen, it is possible to file a request for the Ubuntu maintainers to re-pull the newer version from Debian (if you can get their attention).
Please base all downstream builds on these packaging rules, with appropriate version number changes to the top entry of the debian/changelog file to add "ubuntu", +svn rev, and whatever else special identifier is needed to show the package's heritage and difference from the official ones.
Please pass up and bug fixes and wish to bugs.debian.org against the grass source package. Thanks.
UbuntuGIS Packages
To be added.
GRASS PPA Packages
- Built by Launchpad using GRASS build recipes
- Either built daily (stable code) or upon request (development code)
Process
- GRASS source code is regularly imported upon change by LP (destination: see above)
- If source has changed, the package is build by
- nesting the debian package files (e.g. from lp:~grass/grass/grass64_release_debian for the 6.4.x stable series) in the original source (e.g. lp:~grass/grass/releasebranch_6_4 for the 6.4.x stable series)
- run the build process on LP for the chosen Ubuntu releases according to the instructions in the debian files (e.g. ~grass/grass/grass64_release_debian)
- Upload the package to the respective archive / PPA (e.g. GRASS Packages: Stable Series for 6.4.x stable series)
What do to on errors in the packaging process
- If a package build fails, its most likely that there were changes in the upstream GRASS SVN
- Then the debian files outlined above must be adapted:
- branch the code of the debian files Bazaar (bzr) repository from launchpad
- make the necessary changes locally
- prepare the source running the recipe locally using
- bzr dailydeb
- bzr build
- tests the build process on your machine using
- pbuilder (recommended), or
- dpkg-buildpackage (etc.)
Actions where help is needed
Outstanding tasks are:
- check the correct update & daily builds for GRASS 6.4.x
- Check if the upgrade to the next Ubntu release (13.04) does not affect the packages
- make the GRASS 7.0.x package failsave so that it can be activated for daily builds
Interested contributors, please come in here and give something back to the GRASS community!