[pkg-firebird-general] Re: Being a beta tester for Firebird 2package on Debian

[Damyan Ivanov]

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Valdir Marcos написа:
> The standard installation of any Debian program (via apt-get) is to
> overwrite its pevious versions.

I plan for different set of packages that conflicts with 1.5 packages,
so only one is installed at a moment, but the possibility to use 1.5 and
2.0 remains, with the constraint that you can't use them simultaneously.
Read below.

> The standard installation of FB 2.0 overwrite FB 1.5, but making both
> coexist is not difficult.

No two processes can listen on port 3050 at the same time. And no two
pakcages can provide the same binary (/usr/bin/gfix for example) and be
installed simultaneously. I prefer to keep the default port (and default
utilities' names), since otherwise a major incompatibility with upstream
is created.

> We could make this could make this coexistence by two ways:

I intent to go this way:

Two sets of packages are created. Currently we have (this is version
1.5, despite the "2" in package names):
libfbclient1
libfbembed1
firebrid2-super-server
firebird2-classic-server
firebird2-server-common
firebird2-utils-super
firebird2-utils-classic
firebird2-common
firebird2-dev
firebird2-examples

I plan that 2.0 version of firebird creates:
libfbclient2
libfbembed2
firebrid2-2.0-super-server (conflicts with firebird2-super-server)
firebird2-2.0-classic-server (conflicts with firebird2-classic-server)
firebird2-2.0-server-common
firebird2-2.0-utils-super (conflicts with firebird2-utils-*)
firebird2-2.0-utils-classic (conflicts with firebird2-utils-*)
firebird2-2.0-common
firebird2-dev
firebird2-2.0-examples

The idea is that you may have only one server and one -utils- package
installed, but may go back and forth between 1.5 and 2.0 versions.

library and other packages have no restrictions, since they either
contain files with fifferent names (libfb*) or use different directories
(-common, -examples).

Another major difference between 1.5 and 2.0 server packages is that
they use different directories for storing databases and configuration.

1.5
DB: /var/lib/firebird2/data
conf: /etc/firebird2

2.0
DB: /var/lib/firebird2/2.0/data
conf: /etc/firebird2/2.0

This way makes possible to back up all databases with 1.5, install 2.0
(removing 1.5), restore, test. If something goes wrong, 1.5 may be
installed back (removing 2.0), databases corrected, backed up, then 2.0
installed (removing 1.5), restored and etc ad infinitum :)

firebird2-dev is special, the 2.0-version of that package will become
the "authoritative" -dev package, making other packages built with it to
ise libfbclient2 instead of libfbclient1 (resp. libfbembed). This is the
way to make packages that depend on firebird library to start using 2.0
client library. At this point the 1.5 source package will stop producing
firebird2-dev package.

> 1. Changing the installation/uninstallation scripts of both versions on
> variables such as:
> - FBRootDir=/opt/firebird

Hey, this is Debian. /opt is not an option :)

> The question that remains is "should we change Debian and Firebird
> natural installation behavior?".

It is my belief that the answer is "no". I believe we can have the best
from both worlds.

> I know that depending on how somebody builds its sql statements this
> migration from 1.5 to 2.0 maybe very traumatic.

This is why I'd prefer to have both versions installable, even if not at
the same time.

> I also know that some people still need to mix Interbase (5.x, 6.x, 7.x)
> and Firebird (1.x, 2.x) because of many reasons, such as different
> vendors, old applications, etc, but how can we inform in the apt-get
> that FB 2.0 installation will overwrite FB 1.5 or not?

I guess I've explained that above. I'd like to add that people
installing Interbase or non-debian Firebirds on Debian box should know
how to do it without interfering with the package management system.
/opt and /local are exactly for this.

> If is there anything that I can help, I want to contribute.

Good :) Do you have experience in debian package internals? If yes,
please take a look at the SVN repository used for debian packages. It is
at http://svn.debian.org/wsvn/pkg-firebird

1.5 is in branches/stable and branches/sid-1.5
2.0 is in branches/2.0.0

your advice on packaging techniques would be very welcome.

If you don't happen to have that knowledge, it's all right. Please line
on the queue of beta-testers, along with Pierre :) I hope to be able to
prepare 2.0 packages this weekend. Testing is even more important than
development, since users happen to have so different requirements and
approaches that no developer can foresee everything.


this mail got too long, sorry. Now off to bed so I can get up tomorrow :)


Regards,
	dam
- --
Damyan Ivanov                           Modular Software Systems
dam at modsoftsys.com
phone +359(2)928-2611, 929-3993              fax +359(2)920-0994
mobile +359(88)856-6067             dam at jabber.minus273.org/Gaim
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