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kmoore134
10-12-2005, 09:14 PM
Well folks, the PBI stuff has really taken off in the past few weeks, and it's time I hand it over so I can get back to working mainly on the OS again :) I've gone ahead and put together this proposal on how the PBI's should be inspected / administered here in the future.



-- PBI Approval Team --

The PBI Approval team will consist of about 5-7 people. These folks
will be given admin access to the PBIdir.com site, where they can add
/ remove various PBI's from the portal, as well as FTP access for uploading
these PBI's to the FTP mirrors. These people will also have the duty of
inspecting PBI's according to the following checklist, and communicating
with the developers who submit their PBI's for inspection.


PBI Approval Checklist

* Does the PBI file install / remove properly. (No Errors) (Y/N)

* Was it created with the most recent PBI creator (Within Reason) (Y/N)

* Does it modify the system unnecessarily in any way? (Y/N)

- I.E. Does the PBI.SetupScript.sh file copy any files to the filesystem outside of the PBI's home directory? Does it copy libraries to the system when they should be self-contained?

- Some programs *need* to modify the system, such as Drivers, or services like Apache, but regular user-land apps like XMMS or games probably don't have a reason to be modifying the system in any way. If the program is copying libraries anywhere on the box *be careful*, this is a problem waiting to happen.

* If the program copies or modifies files on the base system, does it clean them up when removed? (Y/N)

- I.E. Does the PBI.RemoveScript.sh file clean up anything that the PBI.SetupScript.sh file creates?


* Does the program install and operate on a *fresh* installation of PC-BSD? (Y/N)
- This is sometimes the only way to make sure the PBI has all the libraries it needs for operation.

* Does the program launch and run properly within reason? (Y/N)
- If the program works, great. If it works, but it's buggy, that can be fine also, since that's the nature of opensource beta (or release) products.


* Does the program violate any copyright(s)? (Y/N)
- If the program does not permit redistribution, please don't upload it!


People who wish to become apart of this team will need to have at least a bit of shell experience, and access to a system where they can test and break things :) If this is something you want to help out with, please e-mail me at kris@pcbsd.org, with a little bit of information about yourself, and I'll see about adding you to this group. Members of this team will also get a <username>@pcbsd.org e-mail address, so you look nice and official :)

pcbsdusr
10-12-2005, 09:41 PM
that's very good news.

Kris, i am sure that if the .pbi creator would open .pbi files for inspection it would be helpful for this team.


I also think there should be one more person in the team, someone who could (after a pbi of a given program passes testing) contact the software maintainers in order to propose for official .pbi's to be created.

Something like a Marketing manager for pbi's which would take advantage of working packages to seduce their program creators to make the packages themselves.

Cheers!

RF

Dingens
10-12-2005, 09:46 PM
I also think there should be one more person in the team, someone who could (after a pbi of a given program passes testing) contact the software maintainers in order to propose for official .pbi's to be created.
yes yes yes! this would be very helpfull!

there are so many software for freebsd! they creat a pbi to populate their software!

my engllish is very bad! :?

Charles
10-12-2005, 10:15 PM
Excellent news!
I think somehow we already have the people to constitute this team :)

marcuswerner
10-13-2005, 07:33 AM
Hi Kris

I interested in attending the PBI Approval Team as well I have a number (about 10) different PC's where I can install PCBSD and can check the installation of newer PBI's. I'm not a programmer but have experience in Linux and FreeBSD.

Marcus from Germany

pcbsdusr
10-13-2005, 07:50 AM
It just hit me...

The team needs to check on two more points:

1- Does the pbi effectively place the shortcuts on desktop and start menu

because some programs failed to install the desktop shortcut while the option was selected

2- Does the pbi respect the start menu structure of other pbi's (i.e. K Menu/Programs/Program folder/program shortcuts)

Because i have tested a pbi which installed his shottcuts on the menu (i.e. K Menu/Program folder/program shortcuts)

Amigamerlin
10-13-2005, 11:33 AM
Great news !! :D .
Damn I'm not a programmer and I don't have a big experince in shell :( otherwise I'll like so much to become a Member of PBI approval Team.

EHm... EHM.... what about a PCBSD BETATESTER team :D :D :D.

Bye to all.

pcbsdusr
10-13-2005, 12:24 PM
we are all beta testers here LOL :lol:

cb22
10-13-2005, 06:23 PM
Hmm, is it OK for things to have there own external lib dir?
Like /usr/X11R6/lib/xmms where the xmms plugins are stored...

kmoore134
10-13-2005, 08:37 PM
I consider that a "grey" area. Some programs are picks, and require that their plugins are stored in a specific place, like /usr/X11R6/lib/<name>. Thats one thing I don't like about open source stuff, everything is so scattered around the OS :) In this case, I would let it go though, since its not the packagers fault that the app works that way :)

kmoore134
10-13-2005, 08:43 PM
I also think there should be one more person in the team, someone who could (after a pbi of a given program passes testing) contact the software maintainers in order to propose for official .pbi's to be created.

Something like a Marketing manager for pbi's which would take advantage of working packages to seduce their program creators to make the packages themselves.


That's the idea :) Once we get to 1.0, hopefully we'll start seeing some developers take it upon themselves to release PBI's. Its in their best interest anyway, so they can make sure their software is up-to-snuff, and works the way they expect it to :)

willis
10-13-2005, 10:21 PM
I consider that a "grey" area. Some programs are picks, and require that their plugins are stored in a specific place, like /usr/X11R6/lib/<name>. Thats one thing I don't like about open source stuff, everything is so scattered around the OS :) In this case, I would let it go though, since its not the packagers fault that the app works that way :)

Kris, have you given any thought to utilizing UFS's ability to link and overlay directory contents from other locations? For example, place the XMMS plugins in a subdirectory of the XMMS package (ex. /Programs/XMMS/libs) and hard map the directory's contents to /usr/X11R6/lib/XMMS. ROXWrap (http://roxwrap.sourceforge.net/) has the ability to do this as well when creating AppFolders. This way, the application views the libraries as being in the correct location, but has only overlayed the files to the system instead of integrating them into the core OS. I've actually been trying to think of a way to combine ROXWrap with PBI. Merging the two software distribution technologies may actually solve a few of the library integration issues that appear to be cropping up with creating PBI packages like XMMS and Gnome libraries.

Basically do the binary and library dependancy bundling into a ROXWrap AppFolder, then use your PBI installer to place the bundle into the /programs directory, register the mimetypes, and add the menu entries appropriately.

Just a thought.

tim
11-05-2005, 02:36 AM
I am getting to know my PC-BSD system more and more now, and I am thinking of even making the "great change".

Well, maybe not, I am still too atached to windows xp and 2003 :D

Tim.