[Librem-5-dev] Packaging software

[rinigus]

... continued from the relevant discussion in Maps software thread ...

On Sat, Oct 20, 2018 at 12:33 AM Guido Günther <agx at sigxcpu.org> wrote:

>
> You can bundle all of these in the flatpak if you don't want to bring
> them to Debian yourself.

[...]

Simply speaking they either come in via Debian or via a flatpak. Heather
> did some experiments with hosting the flatpak repo (we want one that
> only provides free software).
> For the default (GNOME based) install we'll likely have gnome-software
> prefer apps using the phone's UI and design patterns over those that
> dont.
>

I am at the point now where the version of Pure Maps is ready to be
distributed and the feedback collected. The "only" step that's missing is
building a package/packages. I would like to get some insights and maybe
express my expectations on the distribution. I have not worked with flatpak
before => some of the questions could be coming from that.

As I understood, flatpak allows me to bundle all I wish into one repo. As
far as I could see, there is a support for KDE/Qt apps via its platforms
and it looked reasonable. As a downside, if my application involves larger
dependencies, they all will have to be bundled.

Debs are rather simple way of distribution, from what can I see. Its easy
to split packages into dependencies and combine it together in the build,
as needed. Essentially, same as RPM and other packaging used for Linux
distros (with some specifics, but, for now, idea is the same).

Now, what's not very clear is how to distribute flatpak repo and debs. It
looks like infrastructure is missing where I could easily and fast upload
debs or flatpak repos. One way would be to setup my own server on S3 or
similar and push data there. Any other and easier ways?

If I go through Debian submission route, it would probably take a while
before its all in. Some delay is probably via Flathub as well.

In addition to distribution, I wonder what are the best solutions for
automated builds? So, that we could get support for ARM and x86 variants
(32 & 64bit).

In some aspects, I am looking for a shortcut to make the distribution
simple and fast. Learning new packaging scheme also takes time and it would
be advantageous to go for a long-term solution as well. I presume that L5
is no different to regular PureOS in this aspect, or is it?

Cheers,

Rinigus
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