I've been asked to package apache-solr [1] in Fedora. This is a java
library and webapp posing as a frontend to lucene for searching.
Packaging java jars is not a problem, but there are more problems with
webapp part. I made it into subpackage apache-solr-webapp. Ant build
creates war file (basically a zip with metadata and dependencies
bundled). I expand this war file and replace dependencies with
symlinks to %{_javadir}. I then place content of this directory inside
/usr/share/java/webapps/apache-solr/. This makes it possible to use
webapp in container (tomcat/jetty) while enabling us to update
dependencies independently.
I was thinking about adding default configuration for tomcat inside
yet another subpackage. But this would be just one simple xml file
inside /etc/tomcat6/Catalina/localhost/. Plus solr needs additional
configuration:
* creating of SOLR_HOME directory and placing it somewhere, presumably
/var/lib/solr). I have example solr home dir in %doc, but it is generic
and configuration is not really usable in that state for anything
other than serve as a commented example.
All in all seems like too much of a hassle for little gain. Someone
who is installing webapp should probably be able to deploy it (it's
point and click with manager webapp, or one simple 3-line long
xml). Plus I'd have to add another subpackage for jetty I guess...
My approach is similar to what we discussed on Java SIG meeting in December
and what was proposed in debian packaging draft[2]. We don't have a
tool to make deployments of webapps from /usr/share/java/webapps into
proper container directories yet, so this burden will stay with users
(for now).
I'd like to get more input on my approach and see if anyone sees a
problem with this. Note that there is no guideline for Java webapps as
of now so keep it light :-)
[1] http://wiki.apache.org/solr/
[2] http://dep.debian.net/deps/dep7/
--
Stanislav Ochotnicky <sochotnicky@xxxxxxxxxx>
Software Engineer - Base Operating Systems Brno
PGP: 7B087241
Red Hat Inc. http://cz.redhat.com
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: PGP signature
-- devel mailing list devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/devel
