Ulauncher: Upload to Debian and Ubuntu repositories?

[fossfreedom]

Hi there,

I am the project lead for Ubuntu Budgie and I'm considering currently whether to add ULauncher as a core component of our distro. First question - would you be happy with this? Any reservations that you may have?

The python3 conversion that you have done is a key requirement for us - so it is exciting that you have just started this update. brilliant news :)

To make ulauncher a key component of UB I will need to create a Debian package that meets current Debian expected standards. I will then run with this and ask Debian whether they are happy to include your project in their repositories.

There are a number of questions though with the project source and installation structure that need to be addressed though. Thoughts on the following issues highlighted by Debian lintian?:

1. usr/share/ulauncher/preferences/README.md --> Why is this an installed file?
2. usr/share/ulauncher/preferences/static/fonts/FontAwesome.otf also in fonts-glewlwyd --> why are static fonts being used? Can ulauncher use user defined fonts?
3. font-outside-font-dir usr/share/ulauncher/preferences/static/fonts/FontAwesome.otf --> several font files are included in the source and installed in a odd location (should be /usr/share/fonts) ... similar to 2 - maybe have the ability in the setup package to not install fonts files?
4. binary-without-manpage usr/bin/ulauncher & binary-without-manpage usr/bin/ulauncher-toggle --> anything installed in /usr/bin should have the ability to "man ulauncher" and "man ulauncher-toggle"
5. desktop-entry-lacks-keywords-entry usr/share/applications/ulauncher.desktop
6. desktop-command-not-in-package usr/share/applications/ulauncher.desktop env --> would you please consider adding the GDK_BACKEND=x11 environment variable via the python script rather than via the desktop file?
7. debian subfolder - please can you consider moving the debian subfolder and scripts to another branch. Usually the master branch is just for source files - packaging is handled in other ways such as another branch
8. release versioning. Any chance that in future releases, release versions are tagged "v5.0.0" whereas dev releases are tagged something like "dev xyz" ? Debian has a concept of watching for new releases. Currently I see v5.0.0r5 which is a dev release will confuse the watch system because it cannot distinguish between a final release and a interim dev drop

[gornostal]

Hi @fossfreedom
I would be very happy to see Ulauncher as a core component of Ubuntu Budgie.
I have no reservations like that, much less exclusive ones.

The issues you mentioned have one common reason -- I'm not very familiar with packaging for Debian. I find it confusing, TBH. I did packaging configuration mostly by looking at examples, sometimes without a complete understanding of what's going on there. So I could use some help with fixing the issues.

usr/share/ulauncher/preferences/README.md

No reason for this file to be installed. Should be removed.

usr/share/ulauncher/preferences/static/fonts/FontAwesome.otf
font-outside-font-dir

Ulauncher is not a 100% GTK app. The launcher part is GTK, but the preferences window is an HTML/JS app rendered in a Webkit frame. It requires a custom font from fontawesome.com.
Seems like we have to find a workaround to make Lintian happy about the fonts.

binary-without-manpage

Fixable. I just have figure out how to add man pages

desktop-entry-lacks-keywords-entry

Fixable

desktop-command-not-in-package

I guess I can replace ./bin/ulauncher with a bash script that execs the python file with GDK_BACKEND=x11. So fixable too

debian subfolder - please can you consider moving the debian subfolder and scripts to another branch

I prefer tracking all changes in the same branch. I can update my release automation to remove that folder before the build.

release versioning. Any chance that in future releases, release versions are tagged "v5.0.0"

I think it's a good idea to fix versions, I also don't like the current versioning scheme.

[gornostal]

@fossfreedom if Ulauncher is added to the Debian repositories, will I be able to publish new releases whenever I want?

[fossfreedom]

Many thanks for the feedback - very encouraging. cheers.

As to publishing releases - absolutely! As the maintainer of the package
in Debian and Ubuntu I would be very reliant on releases from your project
and will upload asap when you signal a stable release - or will patch the
package with any significant commits between stable releases where
necessary.

On Thu, 9 May 2019 at 09:52, Aleksandr Gornostal [e-mail]
wrote:

@fossfreedom https://github.com/fossfreedom if Ulauncher is added to
the Debian repositories, will I be able to publish new releases whenever I
want?

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[fossfreedom]

For the fonts I think I will need to physically delete the static versions from installing, add a package dependency on fonts-glewlwyd and then symlink the relevant files back into the static folder. Fiddly - but necessary from a packaging point of view.

I'll try to fix the other issues via the package - and will drop a pull-request for the manpages, desktop-entry-lacks-keywords-entry and desktop-command-not-in-package

Do you have any estimate for when you will adopt a revised version naming convention? I need this to develop the watch file

[gornostal]

add a package dependency on fonts-glewlwyd and then symlink the relevant files back into the static folder

I really hope there's a simpler solution because with this one we will have to add a lot of extra complexity to the build process.

I'll try to fix the other issues via the package - and will drop a pull-request for the manpages

That would be great. Thank you :+1:

Do you have any estimate for when you will adopt a revised version naming convention? I need this to develop the watch file

I hope I can get this done by the end of the week. If something changes I'll let you know.