[LAD] Releasing source code is not enough, I think...

[Fred Gleason]

On Jan 21, 2014, at 13:10 30, Filipe Coelho <falktx at gmail.com> wrote:

> That's why I'm planning to do a small, *developer*-oriented tutorial on how to get the most "generic" binaries possible.
> Something that can work as widely as possible.

Unfortunately, the ambit of a downstream maintainer is a lot larger than just producing a runnable binary.  Just some of the high points:

1) Do the menu item(s) integrate themselves into the overall tree in a way that makes sense given the distro’s overall menu arrangement?

2) Is the documentation installed in such a way that the distro’s native search tools can find it easily?

3) If the package involves adding system services, do they interoperate properly with the distro’s init system (SysV-ish vs. BSD-ish vs. Upstart). This one could use a book in its own right!

4) Can the package be installed and updated easily using the distro’s native package management tools —e.g. yum(8) or apt-get(8)?

5) Does the package lay out default data stores and configuration so the app will come up in a sane state ‘out of the box’?

6) And so on.  You get the idea…

Keep your downstream maintainers happy folks!  They determine much of how your user base perceives *your* project.

Cheers!


|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Frederick F. Gleason, Jr. |               Chief Developer               |
|                           |               Paravel Systems               |
|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|                  A program is a lot like a nose                         |
|                  Sometimes it runs, and sometimes it blows.             |
|                                 -- The Illiterati Programus, Canto I    |
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