Replicant App Repository

graziano at sorbaioli.org graziano at sorbaioli.org
Wed Oct 20 07:13:41 UTC 2010


On Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:29:37 +0200, Matthias Weiler
<weiler.matthias at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all!
> 
> As the List is the main communication tool I'd like to bring up the
> current identica discussion about the aptiode repo here.


Well done, thanks for joining and for discussing it here.


> 
> If you want to check out the whole thread, go there
> http://identi.ca/conversation/55790526
> 
> graziano wrote:
>> yes we should develop a tool to let users add libre apps to the 
>> !replicant repo by themselves. Anyone? Write to our mailing list
> 
> An html-form to enter the necesarry details and upload the apk should be
> easy to do but since it's not here we should at least give the people
> who want to help a way to do so.
> 
> Helpers would just need a possibility to upload apk files to the right
> directory and edit the info.xml and extras.xml files. So having the xmls
> available in gitorious and access to an ftp-server for uploading apks
> should do the job.


I don't think it's a good idea to let anyone add apps to the repo.
If someone wants to hijack putting there non free software it could be
hard to figure out once the number of apps increases.

I think everybody should be able to add apps to our libre repo but the
process should be moderated by someone expert with licensing that has to
approve the app (check for sources, freedom, etc.)




> 
> Would it be possible to forward replicant.us/repo to our repository?
> It's easier to remember and would help spreading the idea about
replicant.



No I think the best idea is to have the Replicant repository on
http://replicant.us/repo

I did the current test repository on my website only because at that time
we still didn't have ftp access to replicant.us. Now, thanks to the efforts
of the Oregon State University Open Source Lab (http://osuosl.org/)
some Replicant volunteers have ftp access and we can upload apps to that
directory.


The problems about the Replicant Software Center (I cohse t) we are facing
now are:


0) our client has to be patched
We use APKtor as client app for our repo but it needs to be patched before
we can use it.
Aarown could you please provide all the needed details about this here so
someone on the list knows what to do and how to do it?


1) we need to develop a tool for people to add the libre apps they find in
a temp directory for some moderator to check and add to the official repo
dir.



> 
>> what's Graziano's policy for adding things to his repo, which
>> seems to be the current de facto Replicant repo?
> The policy needs to be specified but for the moment I would say the
> software in the repo should be free, stable and usefull - the first one
> strict, the other two loose.
> 
> so long
> Matthias
> 


Not at all. The policy I am following to add android applications to the
test repo I put up on my website is that they must be free as in freedom.

If by mistake I added a non free one I remove it immediately.

I don't care for the moment about stability because the "next" version of
the app could be stable and we need to track them all. Another reason is
that if the developer is informed about our work and repo he may be willing
to keep up his development and maybe help us too.

In fact another thing we should do is to inform the developers of the apps
we add about Replicant and our repo.
This could lead to better and more libre apps.



--
Graziano Sorbaioli

http://sorbaioli.org


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