[Kolab-devel] New with Kolab (Hello all)

[Bernhard Reiter]

Hi Jonathan,

On Tuesday 13 March 2007 11:31, Jonathan Carter wrote:
> I recently joined Impi Linux[1], a company that predominantly provides
> desktop and server solutions based on free software to local government
> organisations.

welcome! 

> According to the Kolab roadmap[5], version 2.1 is expected to be
> released in April 2007. We will be implementing the release candidate
> versions until the final release is ready.

This is the right approach from my perspective.

> We're considering a few options to get it into native Debian packages.

It would be good to have good native Debian packages, but you must understand 
the effort it will take to put them up to the same quality 
with Kolab Server/OpenPKG. 

> We don't really want Kolab in /kolab since it's not FHS'sy[6] place to
> put it, and upstream would never approve of it either. 

I think that this is a minor issue, as far as I remember FHS was not made for 
such situations having another system layer in there. A standard followed
too strictly become a problem itself as well. :)
You can place Kolab Server with OpenPKG anywhere, just use a symlink 
from /kolab to it.

> We're also 
> considering using the current Debian versions of kolab-cyrus, etc, and
> simply packaging the newest Kolab specific packages (kolabd,
> kolab-resource-handlers, kolab-webadmin and kolabadmin), although that
> comes with its own complications.

Each package is quite easy to get, but you need to quality control the whole 
combination. What would be helpful is, if we all create more methods for 
automated scripting which could test all flavors of Kolab Servers.
http://kolab.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs-kolab.cgi/utils/testing/ has some helpers
in there, like send_filtertest_emails.py, but this is just a starting point.

> From what I've read so far, it seems 
> that it might be best to use the OpenPKG installation until Debian
> upstream has created native packages. 

This is what we recommend as well, I know Benoit likes to have native Debian 
packages and UGS shows that it can be done, but the effort is not to be 
underestimated.

Definately, if you find a Kolab Server installation that is not working as it 
should, you should compare its behaviour to a Kolab Server/OpenPKG first.
And Kolab Server/OpenPKG is easiest to install and configure from all variant,
as far as I know. Just two commands. ;)

Best Regards,
Bernhard

-- 
Managing Director - Owner: www.intevation.net       (Free Software Company)
Germany Coordinator: fsfeurope.org. Coordinator: www.Kolab-Konsortium.com.
Intevation GmbH, Osnabrück, DE; Amtsgericht Osnabrück, HRB 18998
Geschäftsführer Frank Koormann, Bernhard Reiter, Dr. Jan-Oliver Wagner
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