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  • Support for packaging an OCaml-based tool for Debian

    From Nik Sultana@21:1/5 to All on Wed Jun 14 17:40:02 2023
    Hi, I'm the main developer of an open-source OCaml-based tool and I'm
    trying to get help to package it for Debian.

    The tool is called Caper: https://gitlab.com/niksu/caper
    It is mainly of benefit to the networking community, especially
    tcpdump. Caper features on https://www.tcpdump.org/bpfexam/ -- that
    page invokes a recent build of Caper among other tools.

    Do you know of anybody in the OCaml+Debian community who could carry
    out, lead, or help with packaging?
    Even if they can only help with 20% of the effort, having their
    experience and guidance might lighten the load enough to enable me
    and/or students to carry out the packaging.

    By packaging it for Debian, the tool would be made available to more
    users who can benefit from it.
    I looked into packaging Caper for Debian but I haven't had enough time
    to work through the detailed process -- though I do appreciate the
    wealth of documentation that the Debian project makes available for
    this.
    Caper's developed alongside university research, and since I lack the
    time to package it myself, I also considered finding students with the
    right level of experience and detail-orientation who might be able to
    help with this, but I haven't succeeded in this either.

    Regarding the tool, I've been developing it for a few years. Here is a summary: - the tool is distributed under GPLv3
    - the environment-building and dependency-gathering is automated
    through a Dockerfile and Vagrantfile, both in the repo.
    The compilation is automated.
    - it has benefited from contributions from members of the tcpdump
    community, in the form of patches and of bug reports, as well as
    students. I review all contributions, particularly from students, to
    check quality.
    - it has a regression suite which is heavily used during development,
    to ensure good quality behaviour by the tool.
    - it's actively developed.

    Thank you
    Nik Sultana

    --
    http://www.cs.iit.edu/~nsultana1

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Nik Sultana@21:1/5 to Nik Sultana on Wed May 29 16:00:02 2024
    Hi, since I was last in contact we made progress with packaging for
    Debian and other package platforms, including OPAM: https://gitlab.com/niksu/caper/-/blob/master/pkg.sh?ref_type=heads

    It's the first time that the student and I worked on packaging for these platforms. Would it be possible to obtain feedback from your community
    on how we can improve our packaging craft for Debian?

    Once we're more familiar with the process, I'd like to regularly update
    the package for each version of the tool.

    Thank you
    Nik


    On Wed, 14 Jun 2023, Nik Sultana wrote:

    Hi, I'm the main developer of an open-source OCaml-based tool and I'm
    trying to get help to package it for Debian.

    The tool is called Caper: https://gitlab.com/niksu/caper
    It is mainly of benefit to the networking community, especially
    tcpdump. Caper features on https://www.tcpdump.org/bpfexam/ -- that
    page invokes a recent build of Caper among other tools.

    Do you know of anybody in the OCaml+Debian community who could carry
    out, lead, or help with packaging?
    Even if they can only help with 20% of the effort, having their
    experience and guidance might lighten the load enough to enable me
    and/or students to carry out the packaging.

    By packaging it for Debian, the tool would be made available to more
    users who can benefit from it.
    I looked into packaging Caper for Debian but I haven't had enough time
    to work through the detailed process -- though I do appreciate the
    wealth of documentation that the Debian project makes available for
    this.
    Caper's developed alongside university research, and since I lack the
    time to package it myself, I also considered finding students with the
    right level of experience and detail-orientation who might be able to
    help with this, but I haven't succeeded in this either.

    Regarding the tool, I've been developing it for a few years. Here is a summary:
    - the tool is distributed under GPLv3
    - the environment-building and dependency-gathering is automated
    through a Dockerfile and Vagrantfile, both in the repo.
    The compilation is automated.
    - it has benefited from contributions from members of the tcpdump
    community, in the form of patches and of bug reports, as well as
    students. I review all contributions, particularly from students, to
    check quality.
    - it has a regression suite which is heavily used during development,
    to ensure good quality behaviour by the tool.
    - it's actively developed.

    Thank you
    Nik Sultana

    --
    http://www.cs.iit.edu/~nsultana1

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)