Re: Question wrt dual-PEAR

Greg Beaver wrote: > Pierre Habouzit wrote: >> Hi, I'm interested into PEAR packaging for debian (I'm currently near >> to be Debian Developper [1]). >> >> I'm really interested into web apps packaging in debian, and mostly in >> php which is the language I use the most for web apps. The thing is >> that (IMHO) php, especially PEAR isn't in a very good shape in debian. >> >> Our major problem is that We (I say *we* because I've talk a bit with >> PHP debian maintainer that are /de/ /facto/ PEAR maintainer atm) do not >> have found any good way to maintain two branch of PEAR on the same box. >> I'll explain : >> >> * we have PEAR libraries that are in real debian packages that live >> in /usr/share/php/ >> >> * OTOH we would like to have a way to allow a user to install with the >> 'pear' command his packages into /usr/local/share/php, without >> having to duplicate the whole /usr/share/php tree. > > So, you would like each user in a multi-user situation, or a superuser? sorry, I used multi-user with a quite wrong meaning. I meant the distinction between debian specific packages that live in /usr/share/php and localy installed (not through debian package) should live in /usr/local/... In fact, what I would like is that by default pear used by root installs all his things in /usr/local/share/php but that it takes in account what lives in /usr/share/php (that we can assume beeing always older that what the root installs, so I belive it's sane to make /usr/local/share/php live before /usr/share/php in the include_path... I belive it's the way perl and python packages work in debian, and it's a nice way) see [1] and [2]. In fact, it's the way emacsen, python, perl packages work, but not pear, and it's a real problem. > If you wish a superuser to install, the best solution is to distribute a > file with debian, /root/.pearrc. This file would define the install [...] > PEAR will first check the .pearrc file, and then check the system-wide > pear.conf file. This will only work for root, so you would need to > create .pearrc files in the ~ directory for each superuser that needs > this facility. I cannot write in /root an /etc/pearrc would be really greath though. the main reason is that a sudo user that keeps his environment will need a .pearrc and that is quite a bad idea : if I need some upgrade of those .pearrc ... then I in the big s**t (TM) > If you wish to have each user install pear in a multi-user situation, > then you would want to do the same thing for each user, except have it > install into /usr/local/share/username/php and make sure the permissions > are set up with the user management tool. for the multi-user, users are on their own. the right solution is to ask to the root a sudo, or to use the same mechanism as root wrt /usr/local/.... because I really think we can find a good solution ;) > Does this answer the question? partially. What I'd love in fact, would be to say in /etc/pear.conf or /etc/pearrc whatever the name is : hey dear pear : * you install all your stuff in /usr/local/share/php (datas in ..../data, and so on) * BUT for the dependencies, you have to check /usr/share/php _too_ I need sth like that AND the ability to override the settings on pear command line in order to make dpkg work. I won't post my link again. but basically , what I do is : (1) during the package creation : a forced install in a forced dir ignoring deps (2) during postinst I use pear install -r (register only) since the files of the module already are in the good place thanks to dpkg. and with that, I have both pear and dpkg happy. that was quite hard to write, but since it work great, the packaging is ok. My only concern is that atm as I said multiple time, i don't know how to make default 'pear' command wanting to make modules live in /usr/local/share/php by default, but still taking /usr/share/php into acount > It would be great to have better debian support for PEAR, please ask any > time if there is something that we can do. yeah, As a php programmer (I program an alumni site for my school, and it's a _huge_ site) I'm allways sad to see how many lib*-perl live in debian, wrt so few php-* :/ [1] http://www.nl.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-opersys.html#s9.1.2 [2] http://www.pathname.com/fhs/2.2/fhs-4.9.html -- ·O· Pierre Habouzit ··O OOO http://www.madism.org