[IRCServices] Official Debian Packaging

[Andrew Church]

     Thanks for your message.  To take your points in reverse order: the
binary data files used by Services are endian-independent, so they should
be able to go into /var/share.  (I haven't actually tested this, but I
don't use fwrite() anywhere except when writing strings, so there shouldn't
be any problems.  If there are, it's a bug. ;) )

     Services currently assumes all the data files are under a single
directory tree, and it'll take a bit of work to redo that; I'll look into
it, but I can't promise getting it done soon.  As a cheap hack, something
like the following (untested) should work, though it leaves a few symlinks
hanging around in /var/share/ircservices:

./configure -bindest /usr/bin -datdest /var/share/ircservices
make install
mkdir -p /usr/lib/ircservices
rm -rf /usr/lib/ircservices/modules
cp -a /var/share/ircservices/modules /usr/lib/ircservices/
rm -rf /var/share/ircservices/modules
ln -s /usr/lib/ircservices/modules /var/share/ircservices/
mkdir -p /usr/share/ircservices
rm -rf /usr/share/ircservices/languages
cp -a /var/share/ircservices/languages /usr/share/ircservices/
rm -rf /var/share/ircservices/languages
ln -s /usr/share/ircservices/languages /var/share/ircservices/
mkdir -p /var/log/ircservices
ln -fs /var/log/ircservices/ircservices.log /var/share/ircservices/
mkdir -p /etc/ircservices
mv -f /var/share/ircservices/example-*.conf /etc/ircservices/
ln -fs /etc/ircservices/{ircservices,modules}.conf /var/share/ircservices/

  --Andrew Church
    achurch at achurch.org
    http://achurch.org/

>Hi,
>
>I'm writing to this list because I plan to make an official Debian version of
>ircservices. I know there is a .deb on the website, but I think it's worth
>to put it in the main debian archive, to have it available on each architecture
>debian supports, and directly from the package managing system.
>
>In order to do so, I must plan to do some changes, at least in the directory
>structure ircservices use. The main thing I must do to have it included
>is to have a more separated directory structure, which refects the FHS.
>I'm wondering if this changes can be received upstream, as additional options
>to configure and make, without changing the actual default behaviour, but
>simply allowing it to be changed calling configure and make with some options.
>
>In this way there will be no problem for the actual users, who won't see the 
>changes from their point of view, but the scripts could be used without changes
>by the debian maintainer scripts (and thus autobuilders).
>
>Here are the directory structure I plan to use in the debian version:
>
>binaries:	/usr/bin/
>modules:	/usr/lib/ircservices/
>databases:	/var/lib/ircservices/
>logs:		/var/log/ircservices/
>configuration:	/etc/ircservices/
>
>
>I hope this (the package and the changes) isn't a problem for you.
>Otherwise I'll be happy to talk about it, and eventually withdraw my
>proposal.
>
>BTW I shall ask for an advice: the services database binary format is 
>architecture dependent or independent? 
>For example can one simply copy the databases from a little endian to a 
>big endian machine and expect them to work? In this case I think I'll move 
>them to /var/share/ircservices insteas of /var/lib/
>
>Thank in advance,
>
>--
>Guido Trotter  - ultrotter at debian.org