advice reqd. on packaging vtk for linux

[Prabhu Ramachandran]

hi,

	I have made a set of debian packages for vtk-3.1 based on my
earlier vtk-2.2 rpms and Aleksey Nogin's modifications for vtk-2.4.
The packages are still imperfect and I need some help and advice from
you folks before I perfect it.

	There exist two configuration options for the OpenGL library,
--with-opengl and --with-mesa.  Now, most linux users use Mesa, and
vtk does make use of mesa specific features like the OSMesa*
functions.  My question is, since Mesa is "like" OpenGL, what will
happen if I were to compile vtk with --with-opengl (after adding the
necessary path and libs to the configure script) while using the Mesa
libs?  Or are there things that OGL does that Mesa just cant do (which
vtk makes use of)?

	The reason I ask this is because, on one machine which has a
Riva TNT2, the GL libs (for XFree86 3.3.5) are provided by nVidia and
these do not have some of the Mesa functions, specifically the OSMesa
stuff.  If standard opengl is merely a subset of Mesa then shouldnt it 
be easier to just compile for opengl and link it to Mesa?  This way I
wouldnt have to build both packages (one with opengl the other with
mesa).

	Is the --with-mpi worth packaging.  The problem with doing
this is that if it requires linking with the mpi libraries then a
normal vtk user would be required to install the mpi libs even if
he/she doesnt use it. :(  Or if someone wants it they could easily
compile it from the package source.

Bugs with vtk-3.1: 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
	None of the bugs are major.

(1) The Makefile.in in the java directory is messed up.  the rule for
install is not correct.  Besides why do you need libraries to be
installed with execute permissions??  here is a diff.

--- vtk-3.1.orig/java/Makefile.in
+++ vtk-3.1/java/Makefile.in
@@ -60,8 +60,8 @@
 
 install:
        @echo "Installing libvtkJava$(SHLIB_SUFFIX)"
-       @${srcdir}/../${INSTALL} libvtkJava$(SHLIB_SUFFIX) $(LIB_INSTALL_DIR)/li
bvtkJava$(SHLIB_SUFFIX)
-       @chmod 555 $(LIB_INSTALL_DIR)/libvtkJava$(SHLIB_SUFFIX)
+       ${INSTALL} -m 644 libvtkJava$(SHLIB_SUFFIX) $(LIB_INSTALL_DIR)/libvtkJav
a$(SHLIB_SUFFIX)
+#      @chmod 555 $(LIB_INSTALL_DIR)/libvtkJava$(SHLIB_SUFFIX)


(2) Most of the libraries are installed with 755 perms.  Why?

(3) From the python/Makefile.in
---
# Install the python files and libraries
# Note: install can only handle one file at a time, so if a new *.py file
#       is added, it must be installed explicitly!
----
	GNU install _does_ handle multiple files.  For instance the
command install -m 644 *.py /usr/lib/vtk/python/ is perfectly valid.
Dont know about other versions on other unices.

(4) Is it ok if I were to package the python library stuff (the *.py
and *.so files) into /usr/lib/site-python/vtk/ ? this would make
setting the PYTHONPATH or setting unnecessary.  Or is the python stuff
dependent on the python version - in which case it would have to go
into the /usr/lib/python-1.5/site-packages?  Please let me know which
is best.


	Thanks and sorry for the long mail.

prabhu
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