Ubuntu Stable and Daily PPA: installing both FreeCAD versions

[NormandC]

Hey Ubuntu users (and devs too),

tl;dr: should we force Daily Builds PPA users to install the 0.16 version along with the daily one?

(Post below has been heavily edited after I made further progress.)

If you didn't know, sgrogan and I (with precious help from f3nix and welcome advice from blacey on git usage) have been working on resuming updates on the Daily Builds PPA. Our progress has been detailed in the Ubuntu PPA Maintenance Coordination topic.

With the current master bringing huge changes to the PartDesign workbench along with quite a few bugs (and possibly incompatibilities with other workbenches?), we've figured that we should allow users to install both versions on their system: the 0.16.670x release from the Stable Releases PPA as well as the freecad package from the Daily Builds PPA.

This requires that we rename the daily build package. We've settled on "freecad-daily". I believe I have it working now.

One thing we cannot avoid: existing users of the Daily Builds PPA will have to install a new package named freecad-daily. I don't see how we can automate it being installed through updates.

I've had another idea: would it be desirable to force installation of the freecad 0.16.6703 package along with the freecad-daily one? I think it's possible now.

Or should we allow Daily PPA users to only use the development version?

Odd things may happen with two different FreeCAD versions installed on the system. For example, if one is to double-click on a FreeCAD file, which version will launch? It may be possible to right-click and choose "Select with" and select either version.

Another thing that I'm not sure about is if we should create two separate ~./FreeCAD folders. This would mean that user preferences would be set separately in each version. Add-on Mods would need to be installed in each folder (unless the user creates a symlink).

Your thoughts are welcome.

[bejant]

This:

should we force Daily Builds PPA users to install the 0.16 version along with the daily one?

and:

I've had another idea: would it be desirable to force installation of the freecad 0.16.6703 package along with the freecad-daily one?

Are OK with me.

Or should we allow Daily PPA users to only use the development version?

My vote is No. I suspect some forum regulars would like to have both 0.16.6703 and 0.17 installed in order to match whatever version someone having trouble in the Help forum is using.

For example, if one is to double-click on a FreeCAD file, which version will launch?

But if that becomes a problem, anyone could just start the FreeCAD version of choice and then open the .fcstd file.

Another thing that I'm not sure about is if we should create two separate ~./FreeCAD folders.

I don't think that can be done - wouldn't the .FreeCAD need to have different names?

This would mean that user preferences would be set separately in each version.

I'm OK with that, so no problem.

[yorik]

Thanks to you guys for the heavy work on the PPA! I'm really glad it comes up so nicely. Well done!

About the parallel stable/development install: I think this is a bigger discussion, because indeed it raises issues that are deeper than packaging, as you say, the problem of sharing the same config files. Very few apps do that (have separate user configs for each version of the software). Blender does that, Draftsight too, they have a main config folder, and inside, separate folders for each version ("2.76", "2.77", etc) and therefore they both need a "migration" system, which we would then need too. All the install paths also need to include version subdirectories. This would certainly need some heavy testing before release.

My position would be: At the moment, let's not implement this in the PPA and let this be a thing for advanced users only (you can do it when you compile FreeCAD yourself, and then launch FreeCAD with command-line switches to use alternative config file), and first build in FreeCAD the necessary stuff to have concurrent versions installed.

[Sawfish]

At the moment I have 0.16 stable installed through PPA, and (out of necessity) 0.17 installed (compiled) through Termnial (Ubuntu 14.04). It is nice to have 0.16 to be able to look at files posted in the help section, and also some files created in the older version is better to open in 0.16 than 0.17. But as soon as 0.17 is available through PPA, I will only use this version and avoid the hassle of compiling. At this point all my files are converted to be used in 0.17 and even if there are some bugs at the moment, I prefer to use this version.

Best regards
ZF