Dear Maintainer,

Please consider adding msbuild to the Mono SDK packages.

The older xbuild tool is deprecated and shouldn't be used any more:

$ xbuild
msbuild instead <<<<

The Mono project has provided the official msbuild tool since version 5.0:
https://www.mono-project.com/docs/about-mono/releases/5.0.0/#msbuild

Thanks!

Hi,

Just wanted to add that trying to build OpenRA currently fails with the
following error for me:

```
$ make RUNTIME=mono
Compiling in Release mode...
OpenRA requires the 'msbuild -verbosity:m -nologo' tool provided by Mono >= 6.12.
make: *** [Makefile:94: all] Error 1
make RUNTIME=mono  0.00s user 0.01s system 96% cpu 0.017 total
```

Its INSTALL.md suggests to update and install mono from the mono
project's Debian package repository:

https://github.com/OpenRA/OpenRA/blob/bleed/INSTALL.md#linux

It would be great if mono could be updated to 6.12 and could add
"msbuild" in Debian directly to hopefully fix this issue, without
needing to resort to an alternative package repository.

Regards, Linus

Greetings, Mr. Le Gonidec.

I'd urge you to take a look at these:

RFP: msbuild -- build platform for .NET and Visual Studio
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=959043

mono-xbuild: Mono packages should provide msbuild instead of xbuild
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1033828

As far as I'm aware, the Mono project used to have its own deb
repository, which included among other things msbuild and nuget
packages. Personally I'm not seeing any licensing obstacles that would
impede their inclusion into the official Debian repository.

Also, I may not be completely sure, but apparently Mono uses its own
patched version of MSBuild which is published here:
https://github.com/mono/msbuild
(Please note the tags as well.)

There is also a "Linux packaging" repo here, it includes the debian
folder which might be easier to adapt to current sid/testing
dependencies and packaging policies:
https://github.com/mono/linux-packaging-msbuild

Meanwhile, the upstream repository of MSBuild (as maintained by
Microsoft) apparently only has support for .NET Core included out of
the box.

What do you think of this?

Sincerely,
Ilyas Gasanov

Thanks for your interest for Mono in Debian, that clearly goes far
beyond my own ;)

For a bit of context, Mono was facing removal from Debian after several
years being unmaintained. I took over its maintenance because I rely on
the Mono runtime binary and libraries for some other project of mine
(https://wiki.debian.org/Games/PlayIt).

On the other hand, I am not interested at all in Mono (or .NET) as a
development platform. So don’t expect me to work on adding support for
new packages that would only have some use in this context.

Actually my current plan is to remove several binary packages built from
the mono source package, reducing its scope until only the runtime
binaries and libraries are still provided in Debian.

So if some of you want to keep Mono/.NET as a development platform in
Debian repositories, the only way it has a chance to happen is if you
join the maintenance effort. By "joining the effort", I mean you would
have to introduce and maintain any new package yourselves (or find other
interested maintainers and start a team effort).

I hope this summary makes it a bit clearer what the current state of
Mono in Debian is, and what can be expected for as long as I am the only
one willing to work on it.

Understood.

In this case, can I ask you to create a Request For Adoption (RFA) on
WNPP channel, so that other potential maintainers would be able to
take note of this?

вт, 21 янв. 2025 г. в 17:43, Antoine Le Gonidec <debian@dotslashplay.it>:

Le Tue, 21 Jan 2025 17:53:48 +0400,
Ilyas Gasanov <torso.nafi@gmail.com> a écrit :

Mono is already listed on https://wiki.debian.org/LowThresholdAdoption

The main reason there is no RFA yet is that there are still many things
I want to fix in the current packaging (it accumulated many problems
over the years).

Since I took over its maintenance I’ve been working on fixing them, my
current priority order being:
1. Fix the problems reported on https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/mono
2. Switch to the new upstream maintained by the WINE team
3. Remove *unused* binary packages to reduce the maintenance scope
(anything with reverse dependencies or reverse build-dependencies is
going to stay)

Of course, even without having submitted this package explicitly for
adoption, I would be more than happy to see other people joining the
maintenance of the mono source package. If they have objectives
different than mine it’s not a problem, on the contrary: each
co-maintainer could then focus on the parts they really care about.

I think there is a wnpp report category more appropriate when asking
for co-maintainers… Maybe RFH?

Yes, I believe an RFH would be more suitable in this scenario.

P.S. I personally can consider co-maintaining, however I cannot really
guarantee any particular level of availability for maintenance tasks at
this point.

вт, 21 янв. 2025 г., 18:14 Antoine Le Gonidec <debian@dotslashplay.it>:

severity 1033828 wishlist
tags 1033828 + wontfix
thanks

Support for msbuild is not going to be added in the foreseeable future.

Building OpenRA is no longer a valid usecase, as they switched away from
Mono in favour of Microsoft-provided .NET 8.0.

See the following for more details about the scope of the current Mono Team:
https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Mono#Scope_of_Framework_Mono_maintenance