[Pkg-javascript-devel] hello, plus node packaging questions.

[Andrew Baxter]

Hello,

I'm emailing partly to introduce myself, and partly with a few questions 
about the best way to go about packaging programs based on node.js for 
debian.

I've been interested in the buddycloud (buddycloud.org) federated social 
network project since late last year when I set up a server on the 
network. I offered to have a go at packaging their server and web client 
for debian, both of which use node.js. I posted on the debian mentors 
list asking for help with this, and Jonas Smedegaard replied to me 
saying he was already working on this and did I want to help?

I've thought about this, and I would like to contribute some time to 
helping with packaging buddycloud for debian; however I'm also realising 
as I look into it, that this is potentially quite a complex task, due to 
the large number of library dependencies used by the buddycloud 
programs, each of which presumably need to be packaged as well. So I'm 
now thinking of it as something I can give a bit of time to each week 
over a long period.

I've made a start on cataloging the dependencies and sub-dependencies of 
the web client here:

http://highfellow.org/buddycloud:debian_webclient?&#build_dependencies_for_the_web_client 
<http://highfellow.org/buddycloud:debian_webclient?&#build_dependencies_for_the_web_client>

Once I've done this, I'm thinking that I'll pick a simple module with no 
dependencies and try packaging that, so as to get a better idea of how 
this works.

It would help if I had a better idea of what the Debian policy is (if 
any) on packaging node.js modules, so that I have a better idea of what 
I'm working towards. My main question is whether it's necessary to have 
a separate package for every dependency of a node.js program, and if so 
how the debian package is meant to work with the existing node build / 
package management framework? Is there any document on the web about this?

It seems to me that it would be technically possible to make a working 
debian package for the buddycloud webclient using the program's existing 
build framework, which installs all the program's dependencies in 
subdirectories, and compiles everything into a single build.tar.gz 
package. This wouldn't be too hard to do, but I don't know if this 
approach is suitable for an official debian package, and if not what are 
the specific reasons for not doing it that way?

Regards,

andy baxter.