[Gcl-devel] Re: New Debian packages

[Matt Kaufmann]

Hi, Camm --

I'll try take a look at your .deb stuff soon.  Please let me know if there is a
particular time when you need me to look at it (I've got a lot going on the
next week or two, but I'll fit it in then if you ask).

You're right that there has been one announced bugfix for ACL2 2.7, namely the
one at http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/moore/acl2/v2-7/new.html.  But our
approach to such things is to post the patch but not to create minor version
releases.  We don't have the manpower to do them in a way that makes us
comfortable.  (I'm CCing J Moore in case he wants to chime in on this.)

So, I'd prefer that if you put up a new ACL2 2.7 debian release, you use the
ACL2 2.7 sources as they are, without the bug patch.  (I suppose that if there
is some "blessed" way to do patches in debian, where the user has to take the
step of applying them explicitly, then something like that would be fine.  All
I'm trying to do is avoid the existence of multiple versions of ACL2 2.7 where
people don't even realize that a patch has been applied.)

I'm hoping that we'll release ACL2 2.8 (which has a lot of changes) by the end
of this year, by the way.

Thanks --
-- Matt
   cc: address@hidden, address@hidden
   From: Camm Maguire <address@hidden>
   Date: 16 Sep 2003 19:41:04 -0400
   User-Agent: Gnus/5.09 (Gnus v5.9.0) Emacs/21.2
   Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

   Hi Matt!  I was just putting together a revision of the Debian acl2
   package attempting to address the issues you raised some time ago.  My
   prototype .deb files are at http://people.debian.org/~camm/.  If you
   could take a look, I'd be most appreciative.

   I think there has been one bugfix/patch in the interim since the last
   package release.  I haven't included that patch yet.  Any other issues
   of which I should be aware?

   Take care,

   Matt Kaufmann <address@hidden> writes:

   > P.S. I noticed another place where there is a reference to 2.6 instead of 
2.7
   > It's this one, in /usr/bin/acl2:
   > 
   > exec /usr/lib/acl2-2.6/saved_acl2 -dir /usr/share/acl2-2.6/
   > 
   > -- Matt
   > From: Matt Kaufmann <address@hidden>
   > Subject: Re: [Gcl-devel] Re: ACL2 Version 2.7 release
   > To: address@hidden
   > CC: address@hidden, address@hidden
   > Date: 17 Dec 2002 22:13:14 -0600
   > 
   > Hi --
   > 
   > Comments are interspersed.
   > 
   >    Greetings!  Just going through some old email...
   > 
   >    As stated earlier it is really quite a minor issue, but Debian
   >    packages have the capability of automatically tracking a url to detect
   >    a new release of an upstream package.  This can be put in a cron job,
   >    and makes the maintenance of many packages (such as I have, alas)
   >    significantly easier.  If there were a web page or an ftp url with a
   >    link labeled acl2-2.8.tar.gz or some such (i.e. version number in the
   >    file link), then in a year's time when I've completely forgotten about
   >    the whole acl2 scenario, or even that its about time to check in a few
   >    places, (:-)) an automated download, Debian patch, and build will be
   >    attempted and I'll be alerted to the results.  So if that is not too
   >    much trouble to add to the acl2 homepage, for example, it would be
   >    much appreciated.  Of course if it is too much hassle, please don't
   >    worry about it.
   > 
   > The page at http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/moore/acl2/index.html has a link
   > labeled "Home Page for Version 2.6", which points to the previous home 
page, at
   > http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/moore/acl2/v2-6/acl2-doc.html.  When we 
release
   > Version 2.8, I expect that the link will be renamed "Home Page for Version 
2.7"
   > and will point to 
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/moore/acl2/v2-7/acl2-doc.html.
   > Does that serve your purpose adequately?  If not, then please feel free to
   > suggest a specific link to add that serves your purpose.
   > 
   >    As for the nonstd and workshops, do you feel they should be included
   >    in the Debian package or in a related package?  Are the releases of
   >    these files synchronized to the main source release?  And, just
   >    clarifying here, the current state of the package has addressed all
   >    your previous concerns, yes?
   > 
   > I don't know if they should be in a related package or not, because I don't
   > have a lot of intuition yet about package organization -- but I can say 
that
   > they can be pretty big and very few users will want either of them (in 
fact,
   > perhaps nobody will want the workshops tarball).  Maybe they don't need to 
be
   > packages at all.  Anyhow, yes, nonstd and workshops are synchronized with 
the
   > main source release, at least in general.  However, I can imagine putting 
out
   > updated versions in mid-release.  I can also imagine breaking workshops 
into
   > individual gzipped tar files in the future; so far we have had 3 workshops 
and
   > their data is combined, but after a few more workshops (maybe even one 
more,
   > next summer), maybe that won't be such a good idea.
   > 
   > Regarding the current state of the package:
   > 
   > Here are a few reasonably minor observations on the Debian package for 
ACL2.
   > After that, at the end, I include answers to your recent questions.
   > 
   > ==============================
   > 
   > We have put up a patch (see the "Recent changes to this page" link at
   > http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/moore/acl2/).  I don't know yet whether we 
will
   > update the images or the distributed files.  I will try hard to let you 
know if
   > we do so.  Such a change probably wouldn't show up on the main web page.
   > 
   > ==============================
   > 
   > You could put a copy of http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/gcl/cvs/HOWTO-UNPACK-DEBS 
in  
   > http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/a/acl2/.  Actually, what I did 
(since I
   > didn't want to be root when testing this at AMD) was, for example:
   > 
   > ar x acl2-doc_2.7-7_all.deb
   > gunzip data.tar
   > tar xvf data.tar
   > 
   > ==============================
   > 
   > In /usr/share/doc-base/, I see "acl2" and "Acl2".  The spelling is "ACL2",
   > though sometimes we use "acl2", especially in file names -- but we (try) 
never
   > to use "Acl2".  No big deal, though.
   > 
   > ==============================
   > 
   > /u/acl2/temp/usr/share/doc/acl2-doc/copyright refers to v2-6 rather than 
v2-7.
   > Also, I wonder a little if the reference to LGPL could confuse people, 
given
   > that file LICENSE does not refer to LGPL.  (Perhaps it should; I haven't
   > thought about the license lately.)
   > 
   > ==============================
   > 
   > http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/a/acl2/acl2_2.7-7_i386.deb as well 
as
   > acl2_2.7-7_sparc.deb (and perhaps others unpack to ./usr/share/acl2-2.6/,
   > though in fact what I seem to find there really is ACL2 2.7 (not 2.6) -- 
so the
   > problem seems to be only with the directory name.  The :mini-proveall 
using the
   > saved_acl2 from the former worked fine on my Redhat 7.3 Linux machine.  I 
also
   > did an include-book, of usr/share/acl2-2.6/books/ordinals/limits actually. 
 It
   > worked fine, though two things struck me as strange: (1) the limits.cert 
file
   > (and probably all the .cert files) refer to /mnt/i19/t1/camm/tmp/acl2-2.7/,
   > which ACL2 seems to ignore but could lead to problems in future versions; 
and
   > (2) it may be a little odd that the .o files and .cert files are kept in
   > different directories, since they are both a sort of "object" file I think
   > (both are products of book certification, and neither is distributed with 
the
   > sources from the ACL2 web site).
   > 
   > ==============================
   > 
   > Thanks --
   > - -- Matt
   > 
   >    Take care,
   > 
   >    Matt Kaufmann <address@hidden> writes:
   > 
   >    > Hi, Camm --
   >    > 
   >    > Thanks for the good news about ACL2 2.7 as a Debian package.  That 
was quick!
   >    > 
   >    > Actually, acl2.tar.gz is only part of the story, in particular, there 
are
   >    > workshops.tar.gz and nonstd.tar.gz.  We do releases only infrequently 
(the last
   >    > one was in November 2001) and you can tell when there's a new one by 
going to
   >    > http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/moore/acl2/ (and/or joining the acl2 
mailing
   >    > list).
   >    > 
   >    > -- Matt
   >    >    Cc: address@hidden, address@hidden, address@hidden,
   >    >       address@hidden, address@hidden
   >    >    From: Camm Maguire <address@hidden>
   >    >    Date: 19 Nov 2002 15:49:48 -0500
   >    > 
   >    >    Greetings, and thanks for the update!
   >    > 
   >    >    2.7-1 built fine with only the expected modifications to the object
   >    >      list, and has been uploaded.  We'll see what the autobuilders do.
   >    >      2.6-15 built and passed (short) tests everywhere except m68k.
   >    > 
   >    >    This is a minor issue, but if you maintained a single directory 
with
   >    >    links to your versions named something like acl2-2.6.tar.gz
   >    >    acl2-2.7.tar.gz, etc, then I could automatically check for newer
   >    >    versions, download, patch and compile on an unattended basis.
   >    >    (Uploads of course are always performed manually).
   >    > 
   >    >    Take care,
   >    > 
   >    >    Matt Kaufmann <address@hidden> writes:
   >    > 
   >    >    > Hi --
   >    >    > 
   >    >    > Regarding the recent emails about creating a Debian package for 
ACL2 (thanks
   >    >    > again, Camm, and also Mike T. for your recent email):
   >    >    > 
   >    >    > J Moore and I hav just released ACL2 Version 2.7.  The ACL2 home 
page
   >    >    > (http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/moore/acl2/) now points to the 
new version.
   >    >    > The previous version (2.6) is accessible from there via a link.
   >    >    > 
   >    >    > -- Matt
   >    >    > 
   >    >    > 
   >    > 
   >    >    -- 
   >    >    Camm Maguire                                               
address@hidden
   >    >    
==========================================================================
   >    >    "The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."  --  
Baha'u'llah
   >    > 
   >    > 
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   >    > 
   > 
   >    -- 
   >    Camm Maguire                                            address@hidden
   >    
==========================================================================
   >    "The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."  --  
Baha'u'llah
   > ----------
   > 
   > 
   > 

   -- 
   Camm Maguire                                         address@hidden
   ==========================================================================
   "The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."  --  Baha'u'llah