[Pkg-octave-devel] Bug#672651: Bug#672651: Bug#672651: octave-common: pkg prefix global config breaks local package installation

[Mike Miller]

On Sat, May 12, 2012 at 4:24 PM, Sébastien Villemot
<sebastien.villemot at ens.fr> wrote:
> Mike Miller <mtmiller at ieee.org> writes:
>> Setting pkg prefix in /etc/octave.conf breaks the default behavior of allowing
>> users to install packages into their home directory with "pkg install -local".
>
> The Debian way of installing Octave Forge packages is to use the package
> manager (see the octave-* packages), not "pkg install -local". So we had
> to modify the prefix in /etc/octave.conf so that these octave-* packages
> work out of the box.

On Sun, May 13, 2012 at 9:08 AM, Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso
<jordigh at octave.org> wrote:
> I always thought that Debian users shouldn't be using pkg at all.
> There's a stable Octave release and the Debian packagers have worked
> to package corresponding OF packages at versions known to work with
> Octave.
>
> Not that pkg should be intentionally broken, but it shouldn't be too
> much of a priority for Debian users.

Sébastien, Jordi, thanks for your quick feedback.

I see your points and agree that this is the Debian way, but ideally
the Debian way doesn't get in the way of users installing their own
packages or Forge packages not yet in Debian.

Now that 3.6 is going out, if users read the manual and see this new
"pkg install -forge" feature they might think they can actually use it
on their system :)

> Note that you can also edit /etc/octave.conf. It is a conffile for a reason.

True.  Just so you are aware of the cases I've tested, if I delete the
"pkg prefix" line, Debian-packaged packages work perfectly and so do
packages installed with pkg install -local.  If I change the paths in
/etc/octave.conf, say to /usr/local/{lib,share} instead,
Debian-packaged packages install but are no longer available in
Octave.

> I don't think we are going to change the current setup because it would
> break the support of the Octave Forge packages in Debian. So far we have
> not come up with a way of fixing your problem without breaking support
> for Octave Forge packages; but if you think about a solution, then we
> will gladly implement it.

That's fine, I understand all the different use cases and the priority
is supporting the Forge packages that Debian does ship.

I'm a Debian user but also an Octave developer, I'm aware I'm not the
average user.  However I still think it's a valid goal to at some
point support both Debian-packaged Forge packages and
local/user-installed packages.  Especially since Octave explicitly has
global and local package installation modes.

I see it the same way as emacs, python, ruby, name your favorite tool,
where Debian has packaged a lot of good extensions / libraries, but
also has in place the configuration for site admins and/or users to
install whatever they want outside of the Debian packaging system.

-- 
mike