Re: Continuing the work on the recipes related to GNU Ring

[Adonay Felipe Nogueira]

Today, I bring you some good and bad news! :)

* The good news

I'm attaching an improved version of my previous set of recipes.

This should allow *GuixSD* users to use GNU Ring straight away.

However, both Guix users (in foreign distributions) and GuixSD users,
must be advised that this is a work-in-progress, and there are still
untested parts, or parts that were overlooked due to my lack of
experience as developer and all things related to "ld"-stuff and with
other build and developer tools and practices.

If you really want to help out, even if just for testing, please read
on.

* The bad news

After installing at least ring-client-gnome, Guix now suggests the user
to add a custom XDG_DATA_DIRS variable to his "~/.profile" file. For
Guix users in foreign distributions, this might cause an unwanted log-in
loop, described in Guix bug #26202
([[http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bug-guix/2017-03/msg00200.html]] or
[[https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=26202]]).

* What was not tested

- Everything, including integration with GNOME Evolution data server
  (for contact list and management), both for GNOME Evolution comming
  from Guix, from GuixSD, or from a foreign distribution (because I
  don't use GNOME Evolution, although it comes by default in Trisquel
  7).

* What might need improvement

- Convince Ring to send their patches to their respective upstreams! :D

- Talk to Ring project to see if so much customization is really
  needed. Perhaps they have patches and "rules.mak" files only so that
  their work "gets lighter", but that might not be a requirement.

- For some reason, the Ring daemon (that is provided by "libring"
  package) doesn't come installed with Ring GNOME client (provided by
  "ring-client-gnome").

- Even after installed, the Ring daemon is actually located at
  "${HOME}/.guix-profile/lib/ring/dring". I guess this deosn't sound
  right for an executable.

- Look in the source code of the newly added packages for things I have
  missed, that might need to be corrected, like bundled stuff, or paths
  that should be pointing to store references.

- See section "What was not tested".

- Split the Ring tarball (ring[something].tar.gz) into useful separated
  ones.

  - Or find a way to get each part separatedly from their git
    repositories, making sure that we are indeed getting the code
    corresponding to beta 2.

- For more things to do, read the attached package definitions file.

* Notes for package maintainers

- All the packages are either new or heavily modified to follow patches
  and "rules.mak" files present inside
  "ring[something].tar.gz/ring-project/daemon/contrib/src".

- The only packages that are upgrades to existing ones (but still
  heavily modified) are argon2 and opendht.

* Notes for testers

- When installing:

  - Disable grafts (use `--no-grafts` option), otherwise you might be
    getting the original argon2 and opendht recipes.

  - Install "libring" and "ring-client-gnome".

- After installing:

  - If Guix tells you to change XDG_DATA_DIRS in your "~/.profile",
    don't do it, instead copy what is suggested to be done, and write it
    as a comment (prefixed with "#") to that file, and see the links I
    referenced so far. You'll still need what was suggested by Guix, so
    commenting it is an useful way to save it for later.

- Before using (each time):

  - In a new terminal, do:

    1. Take the line Guix suggested, and paste it (remove the "#" prefix,
       of course), and press Return (or Enter) to use it as command.

    2. Now run: ".guix-profile/lib/ring/dring" -p

    - This will start the Ring daemon in persistent mode, and make the
      current terminal busy (unresponsible, ignoring almost all
      input). It'll only exit if you press Ctrl + C (or force it to
      terminate.

    4. Do step 1 again in another terminal.

    5. Finally, in this other terminal, run "gnome-ring" client.

-- 
- [[https://libreplanet.org/wiki/User:Adfeno]]
- Palestrante e consultor sobre /software/ livre (não confundir com
  gratis).
- "WhatsApp"? Ele não é livre, por isso não uso. Iguais a ele prefiro
  Ring, ou Tox. Quer outras formas de contato? Adicione o vCard que
  está no endereço acima aos teus contatos.
- Pretende me enviar arquivos .doc, .ppt, .cdr, ou .mp3? OK, eu
  aceito, mas não repasso. Entrego apenas em formatos favoráveis ao
  /software/ livre. Favor entrar em contato em caso de dúvida.
- "People said I should accept the world. Bullshit! I don't accept the
  world."
                                                 --- Richard Stallman

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