[AG-TECH] Linux Packaging for AGTk 2.2

[Thomas D. Uram]

With the release of the AGTk 2.2 beta, we've entered the last phase of 
the 2.2 development cycle, and need to consider packaging for the final 
release.  Based on your responses (if you're in the To: line), you've 
expressed some interest in packaging the AG toolkit for a linux 
distribution that we (Argonne) are not providing; in particular:

Doug Kosovic - Fedora
Chris Willing - Slackware
Joseph Pachod - Debian/Gnoppix
David Golden - Debian

If I've missed anyone, please let me know.

During this release, we've worked to develop a build process that would 
accommodate alternate distributions.  You may have seen the source 
tarball that is available on the beta release page:

    
http://www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/fl/research/accessgrid/software/releases/2.2/redhat.html

This should include everything that was used to build the linux beta 
package.  The build process includes a hierarchy of scripts that begins 
with AccessGrid/packaging/BuildSnapshot.py, and progresses down to more 
specific BuildPackage scripts.  We're using 
packaging/linux/rpm/BuildPackage.py to build the RedHat73 package; 
additional directories could be added under packaging/linux for 
distro-specific details that you identify.

I need to write up the details of the linux build process and get that 
out to all of you; I'll try to do that over the weekend.  In the 
meantime, if you want to take a look at the source tarball and the build 
scripts, feel free to do so and ask questions as often as necessary. 

It would be great to be able to announce support for distributions other 
than RedHat for the final release.  If there's anything we can do to 
help with packaging, please let us know.

Thanks for your help,

Tom/The AG Team