Packaging in Fedora

[LecrisUT]

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I took a quick look at the state of the copr spec file, and although it is not in a state that would be ok for Fedora (primarily misalignment with packaging guidelines, I don't see a specific blocker otherwise?), would there be interest on incremental contribution towards this?

Was this topic discussed or considered somewhere else that I should be reading up on?

[ReenigneArcher]

The biggest problem with Fedora packaging is the builds require cuda which often isn't compatible with Fedora versions when they first release due to always using the bleeding edge of gcc.

I'm not really a fan of trying to distribute Sunshine in distro repos either for several reasons.

1. Our builds often need updates for new distro versions, which means we would have to align releases with whatever distros.
2. There won't be updates until the next distro release, likely leaving users with vulnerable versions of Sunshine (notice most releases have security fixes).
3. I don't really have the capacity to please every single distro and follow all their separate rules, which is why we provide all the packages in other ways.
4. Ultimately I'd like Sunshine to only be distributed via Flatpak in the future, but there is still some work to do before that's a reality.

With that said, I'm certainly open to incrementally improving the sunshine.spec... just please not like LizardByte/Sunshine#4918

And keep in mind, we build every PR with COPR to validate all the different packages and architectures. That must stay as is.

[LecrisUT]

With that said, I'm certainly open to incrementally improving the sunshine.spec

Cool, appreciate it.

just please not like LizardByte/Sunshine#4918

Oh god no. At least from me you will never get anything touched by AI. I am an experienced packager and dayjob right now is centered around integration with upstream, so I understand the upstream concerns and will try to meet the project where it's at.

First step though, are you open to switching the copr CI workflow with packit? Mostly to reduce the maintenance task that upstream needs to carry, and can enable more complex integrations like pinging relevant maintainers or offloading some tests post build.

The biggest problem with Fedora packaging is the builds require cuda

Ah right I forgot about that issue. Would you consider making that a plugin that could be built and installed independently?

I'm not really a fan of trying to distribute Sunshine in distro repos either for several reasons.

If you would allow me to elaborate on the downstream relationship issues you are concerned.

1. Our builds often need updates for new distro versions, which means we would have to align releases with whatever distros.

2. There won't be updates until the next distro release, likely leaving users with vulnerable versions of Sunshine (notice most releases have security fixes).

Not really, the majority packages on Fedora are decoupled from the release schedule. The toolchain updates happen on rawhide or very close to the branch only and it is perfectly fine for the project to not be able to be built for a while. There is probably at least 3 months between toolchain being available and Fedora release, and only 1/year.

What will help though is that it can be added to our trackers and have a larger community help. We usually have pre-test of the toolchains against packages. gcc though I am not sure has it.

3. I don't really have the capacity to please every single distro and follow all their separate rules, which is why we provide all the packages in other ways.

Perfectly fine, and it does not have to be one or the other. The distro packaging duty is for the packager of course.

[ReenigneArcher]

Never heard of packit and a quick search doesn't bring up much about it, so probably not.

Sunshine doesn't have any plugin system at the moment, and cuda helps deliver a primary technology for Linux side of Sunshine, so no I don't think that should be a plugin.

The distro packaging duty is for the packager of course.

Right, but when it falls behind what we're doing we get inundated with issues and support requests. That's why I prefer to handle most of the major packages.

[LecrisUT]

Sorry for the long delay in the response, it is conference season.

Never heard of packit and a quick search doesn't bring up much about it, so probably not.

Really? It is quite a common tool https://packit.dev/ ¹

Sunshine doesn't have any plugin system at the moment, and cuda helps deliver a primary technology for Linux side of Sunshine, so no I don't think that should be a plugin.

For sure if there is any way to make it added by default will try to do so with the spec file. The only issue with the cuda being that Fedora cannot distribute the cuda source. But as a middle-ground, could also consider distributing to RPMFusion which would have a similar reverse dependency testing and mass rebuild.

The main benefit to consider with these integrations is testing on the beta branch during the toolchain changes so that you could report issues to the toolchains and the overall Fedora packaging community and we can work together on fixes. Copr gets you close to that, but it lacks the communication with the other packages. So when a package changes, it is already locked in the version that it distributes and getting changes needed communicated takes significantly more time.

The distro packaging duty is for the packager of course.

Right, but when it falls behind what we're doing we get inundated with issues and support requests. That's why I prefer to handle most of the major packages.

But aren't you getting the worse of both worlds now, you get the issues reported about these and you do not have the early testing and collaboration of the packagers that would make sure the project is rebuilt for each dependency change? Also it is perfectly fine to redirect the issues to the packager and have them do the initial triage if you are worried that you get issues not related to the current project?

Footnotes

1. Count seems to be at about 1500. Even eliminating Fedora downstream, it's still ~200 upstream projects ↩

[ReenigneArcher]

Doesn't Fedora also prevent shipping certain codecs? Which would mean they can't ship Sunshine.

packit just seems to do exactly what I already created with https://github.com/LizardByte/copr-ci

[LecrisUT]

Doesn't Fedora also prevent shipping certain codecs? Which would mean they can't ship Sunshine.

Yes, although it's a constantly evolving environment with things going from rpmfusion to main Fedora as patents allow it. I cannot tell at first glance what's the state on sunshine w.r.t. that.

Edit: Technically the same restriction applies to copr, but, I did not do a review, so I did not see anything 😉

packit just seems to do exactly what I already created with https://github.com/LizardByte/copr-ci

Indeed so, but with a tighter integration with the copr project, and other features, like making it possible to build locally the same as it was on copr. Will not bore you with an unsolicited sells-pitch, for you it would mostly offload the maintenance of such integrations (secrets, and all that) to a first party service maintained by (roughly) the same teams that maintain copr.