[Debichem-devel] Packaging ASL

[Ghislain Vaillant]

On 21/07/15 18:17, Zeev Pekar wrote:
> [...]
>
>>> May I ask somebody to volunteer to finish the initial creation of the
>>> package, so it can be uploaded?
>>> It has been developed/tested on Debian since 2010 so the process should
>>> be smooth.
>>> Packaging efforts for other distros are underway and probably can be
>>> helpful for Debian [1].
>>>
>>> Thank you,
>>> Zeev
>>> ------
>>> In short about the library:
>>> It is an OpenCL-based multiphysics simulation software that can be
>>> deployed (besides CPU) on different massively parallel architectures
>>> like GPUs, FPGAs, DSPs etc. and covers a variety of physical and
>>> chemical phenomena. It can be utilized in a number of fields:
>>>
>>> - CFD: http://asl.org.il/benchmarks/multicomponent_flow/
>>> - image-guided surgery: http://avtechscientific.com/cryovision
>>> - crystal growth:
>>> https://github.com/AvtechScientific/ASL/blob/master/examples/levelSet/levelSetFacetedGrowth.cc
>>> - virtual sensing (i.a. medical): http://avtechscientific.com/brainshift
>>> - R&D of biomed devices (i.a. microfluidics):
>>> http://avtechscientific.com/focus
>>> - etc., etc..
>>> ------
>>>
>>> [1]:
>>> https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/libasl/
>>> https://copr.fedoraproject.org/coprs/lupinix/ASL/
>>> https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/home:ealin:physics/ASL
>>>
>
> [...]
>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I am fairly experienced with packaging CMake-based projects and could
>> give you a hand on that.
>>
>> Since the project follows a Git workflow (master branch + tagged
>> release), it would make sense to adopt a Git approach for the packaging
>> repository rather than the more conventional import-from-source-tarball
>> approach that the d-science policy only advocates.
>>
>> I can see from your original work that you are not quite there yet with
>> the packaging content, which is what Andreas mentioned in his reply. I
>> am afraid that the "New maintainers guide" is a mandatory stop, should
>> you intend to maintain this package long term in Debian. I can only give
>> you a lift for the initial effort.
>>
>> Best regards,
>> Ghislain
>>
>
> Hi Ghislain,
>
> initial effort, i.e. initial package creation is exactly what is needed
> - Anton will take over the upload and the maintenance (at least in the
> short term).
>
> It was not my intention to maintain ASL in Debian - I take care of it
> upstream (I'm one of the developers). I wanted to do my best to initiate
> the process. I hope that there will be more people interested in
> maintaining the package once it actually enters Debian and Ubuntu (btw.
> is there a chance it will get into the Ubuntu 15.10?) and the community
> starts to grow.
>
> Thank you very much!
> Zeev
>

 From the first look I have had of it, it should not be too complicated 
to put some packaging up to shape. FYI, I filed a bug with regards to a 
missing copyright header caught by licensecheck.

I can't commit to a particular timeline. It will probably take me a few 
commutes to work before getting something decent. As to whether it will 
land in 15.10 or not, that will depend on how quickly the package is 
mentored (via Andreas or Anton maybe?) and eventually processed by the 
release team.

If the package does not land in time for 15.10, you guys can still make 
a PPA available on Launchpad and use backportpackage from the Debian 
source package to generate Ubuntu packages for all versions you guys 
want to support (maybe all the way down to 14.04 LTS, assuming all 
build-deps are in there).

Hope that makes sense.

Cheers,
Ghis