Introduce optional(?) buildscripts that generate .deb and .rpm files

[ghost]

Currently the suggested method for installation for everyone seems to be with the install.sh file, which downloads the appropriate .deb/.rpm/.pkg file and installs it accordingly, or by manually compiling and installing it by make install

Distros like Ubuntu XX.10, Debian Testing and Fedora continually update and newer versions of dependencies get introduced, which might conflict with the pre-compiled binaries from github actions.
This situation warrants that the user manually compile OBK. The user might also want to use OBK from the develop branch, which also requires manual compilation.

make install installs OBK manually to /usr/local/ and it stays unmanaged by the package manager. I find it is better in linux if all software is installed via the package manager, so everything stays centralized, the user can easily and cleanly un/reinstall OBK and additional checks may be performed by the package manager to ensure any missing/outdated dependencies are installed/updated.

My proposal is to include two optional make-deb.sh and make-rpm.sh files, which compile OBK from source and generate .deb and .rpm files respectively, and additionally allow the user to specify which branch/version of OBK they want.
The scripts might potentially check for any missing dependencies, install them accordingly and optionally run the compilation task inside a toolbox/distrobox container so the host system stays untouched.

Benefits would be that instead of having to run several commands the user might potentially be unfamiliar with, or avoiding the risk of messing up his system with build dependencies, the user will run a simple single .sh file (potentially with some args) and have a .deb/.rpm file he can double-click to easily install via a GUI package manager.

I am willing to work on this, but I would like to hear the opinion of others.

[mominul]

Thanks, I appreciate the thought!

I am currently working on a tool that will enable users to install OBK right through their package manager. But if that fails we'll need to follow a path similar to what you have described.

I have initially tested that from Debian 11 and Ubuntu 20.04, the dependencies are the same in their new versions. I have only tested if the dependencies satisfy using docker, but thorough testing is needed.

Can you test Debian (from 11) and Ubuntu (from 20.04) distributions and their derivatives (ZorinOS, Deepin, Linux Mint) using these two deb files?

About the IM engines, test ibus engines on Gnome and other Gnome derivatives (I think those still prefer ibus, though I am not sure about Mint or Cinnamon), fcitx5 on KDE, and Deepin. Will have to check what provides the best integration on ZorinOS too.

That would help me a ton! Thanks in advance! ❤️

[ghost]

@mominul closing the discussion as per #367 (comment)
Further testing warrants an Issue in the Issues section.

[mominul]

@larina3315 Thanks a lot! About the cryptic error message, I think the installation might have succeeded, have you checked if the binaries of OBK are present?

[ghost]

have you checked if the binaries of OBK are present?

You mean under /usr ? no I did not, I assumed apt reverted any changes it had made after the error message

[mominul]

I meant it because I think that message is a warning, not an error.

[ghost]

I will need to recheck again when I can afford the time, but IIRC I didn't see any desktop (app menu) entry for OBK after that message, so i assumed the install failed.

[ghost]

I have created the necessary shell files for generating .rpms on fedora
support can easily be extended for other distros by manually editing the file
#370

I will document how I intend for it to work.

1. User can specify --ibus or --fcitx to generate ibus and fcitx versions of obk respectively (both flags can be used together to generate both ibus and fcitx versions of OBK together for a given distro.)
2. User can specify distro name, like --fedora or --debian to generate for that specific distro (both flags can be used together to generate binaries for specified distros together, ONLY if the --toolbox flag is set)
   They can also specify version e.g. --fedora 38 or --debian 11
3. User can specify --toolbox flag to compile/clone inside of a toolbox (not mentioning the flag runs the compile/clone etc tasks on users host system)
4. User can specify --develop to compile from the develop branch of OBK (Otherwise uses the master branch)

example usage : ./make-pkgs.sh --fedora 38 --ibus --fcitx --develop --toolbox
compiles the ibus version of OBK from the develop branch for both debian (.deb) and fedora (.rpm) using toolbox containers

Currently debian support is not implemented, but can easily be done so by adding a make-debian.sh file modified from the `make-fedora.sh' file
It still has some issues, so it is not fit for end-user usage.

[ghost]

TODO :

• (DONE) Add check to make sure user doesn't try to compile for multiple distros without the --toolbox flag
• Disable fcitx flag on OBK2 and earlier
• (DONE) Allow user to specify the version of the distro they want to compile in (--toolbox only)
• (DONE) Add --help file and proper docs
• Allow user to select a branch other than develop

[ghost]

The script is now finished, I will close the issue after testing #367 (comment)