Gambas Documentation - How To Package Gambas

How To Package Gambas

This file won't explain you how to make the packages, but the structure they must follow.

Gambas must be packaged the way described in this document, because the development environment relies on this structure when it creates a package of a gambas project.

If a distribution does not follow this requirement, then the packages generated by the development environment won't be able to be installed, and the user will be very unhappy.

Not all distributions make correct gambas binary packages at the moment. So, if you are a packager from these distributions, and if you read this text, please try to help Gambas work on your distribution.

Thanks in advance,

Benoît.

SPECIFICATIONS FOR GAMBAS 2.0

The specifications look like the ones for Gambas 1.0, except that lib.XXX.component files were renamed as XXX.component, and that now a component can have a part written in Gambas.

Gambas binary packages must have the following names and contents:

The runtime package

This package includes the Gambas interpreter needed to run Gambas applications.

It contains:

The interpreter: gbx2.
The symbolic link on gbx2: gbr2.
The internal component description: gb.component, gb.info and gb.list.
The readme files, TODO files, and so on.
The gb.debug component: gb.debug.info, gb.debug.list, gb.debug.component, gb.debug.so.*, gb.debug.la.
The gb.eval component: gb.eval.info, gb.eval.list, gb.eval.component, gb.eval.so.*, gb.eval.la.
The gb.draw component: gb.draw.info, gb.draw.list, gb.draw.component, gb.draw.so.*, gb.draw.la.

Note that gb.la, gb.so, gb.so.0 and gb.so.0.0.0 do not need to be distributed. They are temporary files used for generating gb.info and gb.list only.

Its name must be gambas2-runtime.

The gbr2 symbolic link MUST be in the PATH, otherwise executables will not work.

The development package

This package includes all tools needed to compile Gambas projects without having to install the complete development environment.

It contains:

The compiler: gbc2.
The archiver: gba2.
The informer: gbi2.

Its name must be gambas2-devel.

The scripter package

This package includes the scripter program that allows to write script files in Gambas.

It contains:

The scripter: gbs2.gambas.
The symbolic link on it: gbs2.

Its name must be gambas2-script.

It depends on the following Gambas packages:

gambas2-runtime.
gambas2-devel.

This package must register the application/x-gambasscript mime type as specified by the application-x-gambasscript.xml file and the application-x-gambasscript.png icon.

The gbs2 symbolic link MUST be in the PATH, otherwise scripts will not work.

The component packages

Each gambas component must have its own package.

The package of a component contains:

The shared library files: gb.XXX.la, gb.XXX.so, gb.XXX.so.0, gb.XXX.so.0.0.0.
The component file: gb.XXX.component.
The information file: gb.XXX.info and gb.XXX.list.
Sometimes a part written in Gambas: gb.XXX.gambas.

...where gb.XXX is the name of the component

Then name of a component package MUST BE gambas2-gb-XXX where gb-XXX is the name of the component, the point being replaced by a minus sign.

For example, the gb.qt component package name is gambas2-gb-qt. It must include:

gb.qt.la
gb.qt.so
gb.qt.so.0
gb.qt.so.0.0.0
gb.qt.component
gb.qt.gambas
gb.qt.info
gb.qt.list

Some component are entirely written in Gambas, i.e. they have only a Gambas part. These components are located in the comp directory of the source archive.

You must follow the previous rules for these components, except that there is no shared library files inside.

Note that gb.debug, gb.eval and gb.draw do not have their own package, as they are distributed with the gambas2-runtime package.

The development environment package

This package includes the complete Gambas Development Environment, with the database manager, and the help files.

It contains:

The development environment: gambas2.gambas.
The symbolic link on it: gambas2.
The database manager: gambas-database-manager.gambas.

It depends on the following Gambas packages:

gambas2-runtime.
gambas2-devel.
The packages of the components needed by the IDE and the database manager.

You MAY make this package depend on all Gambas components, so that they are all installed, but this is not recommended.

Its name must be gambas2-ide.

The IDE relies on the following external tools:

The GNU translation tools for translating a project.
The RPM tools for creating RPM packages.
The tar & gzip tools for creating *.tar.gz archives.

So you must add the dependencies on the packages that provide these tools. The name of these packages depends on the distribution.

For example, on Mandriva, they are:

gettext
rpm-build
gzip
tar

The examples package

This package includes all the example projects provided with Gambas.

When packaging the examples, be careful that a Gambas project includes some hidden files and directories. These are:

.project file.
.gambas directory.
.lang directory.
.directory file.
.icon.png file.

It depends on the following Gambas packages:

gambas2-runtime.
gambas2-ide.
All gambas components.

Its name must be gambas2-examples.

The help package

This package includes the help files generated from the wiki located at http://gambasdoc.org.

They are installed in the $(INSTALL)/share/gambas2/help directory, where $(INSTALL) must be replaced by the Gambas installation directory.

The contents of that directory is the following:

The help directory.
The symbolic links image and img.
The tree directory.
The background.png file.
The style.css file.

All other files are not needed.

This package depends on the gambas2-ide package.

Its name must be gambas2-help.

Package list

Here is the list of all packages that must be made:

gambas2-devel
gambas2-examples
gambas2-gb-chart
gambas2-gb-compress
gambas2-gb-crypt
gambas2-gb-db
gambas2-gb-db-firebird
gambas2-gb-db-form
gambas2-gb-db-mysql
gambas2-gb-db-odbc
gambas2-gb-db-postgresql
gambas2-gb-db-sqlite2
gambas2-gb-db-sqlite3
gambas2-gb-desktop
gambas2-gb-form
gambas2-gb-form-dialog
gambas2-gb-form-mdi
gambas2-gb-gtk
gambas2-gb-gui
gambas2-gb-image
gambas2-gb-info
gambas2-gb-net
gambas2-gb-net-curl
gambas2-gb-net-smtp
gambas2-gb-opengl
gambas2-gb-option
gambas2-gb-pcre
gambas2-gb-pdf
gambas2-gb-qt
gambas2-gb-qt-ext
gambas2-gb-qt-kde
gambas2-gb-qt-kde-html
gambas2-gb-qt-opengl
gambas2-gb-report
gambas2-gb-sdl
gambas2-gb-sdl-sound
gambas2-gb-settings
gambas2-gb-v4l
gambas2-gb-vb
gambas2-gb-web
gambas2-gb-xml
gambas2-gb-xml-rpc
gambas2-gb-xml-xslt
gambas2-help
gambas2-ide
gambas2-runtime
gambas2-script

You can have a gambas2-debug package to store the debugging information of all previous packages.

SPECIFICATIONS FOR FUTURE GAMBAS 3

At the moment, the specification are almost the same than for Gambas 2:

The version number is incremented: "gambas2" must be replaced by "gambas3", "gbx2" by "gbx3", and so on.

Components can have control icons. These are PNG files that must be installed in a $(INSTALL)/share/gambas3/control/$(COMPONENT) directory, where $(COMPONENT) is the name of the component.

Example

The MessageLabel control icon of the gb.form component is a messagelabel.png file that must installed in the $(INSTALL)/share/gambas3/control/gb.form directory.

Beware that this is a development version, and so subject to changes at any moment!