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Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2024 17:40:06 +0000
Message-Id: <D58H2VMR7J57.328AA3ALIUZWF@partin.io>
From: "Tristan Partin" <tristan@partin.io>
Cc: "Paul Ramsey" <pramsey@cleverelephant.ca>, "PostgreSQL Hackers"
 <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>, "Gabriele Bartolini"
 <gabriele.bartolini@enterprisedb.com>, "Peter Eisentraut"
 <peter@eisentraut.org>, "Andres Freund" <andres@anarazel.de>
Subject: Re: RFC: Extension Packaging & Lookup
To: "David E. Wheeler" <david@justatheory.com>, "Christoph Berg"
 <myon@debian.org>
References: <2CAD6FA7-DC25-48FC-80F2-8F203DECAE6A@justatheory.com>
 <0D3FE0EA-0E87-42BD-AB15-D3549BFD0F4C@justatheory.com>
 <E21B85B5-6412-4D08-A10C-6E11CF6926F9@cleverelephant.ca>
 <ZyESkEAb7_Ey0gjh@msg.df7cb.de>
 <3F0B40EC-21B4-4ACF-934A-5AE024BF56A1@justatheory.com>
In-Reply-To: <3F0B40EC-21B4-4ACF-934A-5AE024BF56A1@justatheory.com>
Archived-At: <https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/D58H2VMR7J57.328AA3ALIUZWF%40partin.io>
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On Tue Oct 29, 2024 at 12:03 PM CDT, David E. Wheeler wrote:
> On Oct 29, 2024, at 12:51, Christoph Berg <myon@debian.org> wrote:
>
>> I think this is where the whole idea of "provide binaries outside of
>> deb/rpm" is just going to die. You are trying to reinvent a wheel=20
>> that has been running well for decades, including lots of production
>> systems. I don't know anyone who would trust that new source of
>> binaries that doesn't integrate into their OS packaging system.
>
> That=E2=80=99s fine for Linux, but more challenging for macOS and Windows=
.=20
> It=E2=80=99s also an issue that the apt and yum repositories, while havin=
g=20
> a lot of stuff, don=E2=80=99t have all extensions.

Hey David,

I haven't worked on Linux packaging in a while, so take my input with=20
a grain of salt. Could we make distro packaging easier for extension=20
developers and take some of the load off of the packaging team?

I would imagine this workflow to be implemented as:

	curl -X POST https://extensions.postgresql.org/package \
		-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
		-d '{
			"extension": "pgvector",
			"tarball": "https://path.to.source.tarball",
			"build-system": "meson",
			"postgres-versions": [
				14,
				15,
				16
			],
		}'
=09
The backend would create the packages and publish them to the various=20
repositories. We would probably need to come up with a dependency=20
manifest that listed both build and runtime dependencies.

This would need some massaging, and has various caveats like require=20
using a well-known build system like PGXS or meson. There are probably=20
security implications that need to be worked through. The packaging team=20
could maybe have some burden lifted off their shoulders.

Is that something people would be interested in? As someone who writes=20
software, I largely find reaching the distribution channels is always=20
the hardest part.

--=20
Tristan Partin
Neon (https://neon.tech)