#835086 RFP: nextcloud -- self-hosted cloud services

#835086#5
Date:
2016-08-22 10:02:59 UTC
From:
To:
* Package name    : nextcloud
  Version         : 9
  Upstream Author : Frank Karlitschek <frank@karlitschek.de>
* URL             : https://www.nextcloud.com/
* License         : AGPL
  Programming Lang: PHP
  Description     : self-hosted cloud services

Nextcloud gives you a private, secure way to share, work with others and access your own data using an easy to use interface. Be it music, calendar appointments, bookmarks, email or your documents, Nextcloud keeps your data safe.
Nextcloud gives organizations control over their data. Manage access to data and communication across devices and platforms, on-premise, on existing storage or with cloud storage. Nextcloud integrates in your infrastructure, offering the extensibility and features you need.

Given that Nextcloud is an Owncloud fork, with the same people behind it, and that Owncloud upstream has always had a difficult relationship with distro maintainers, there may be problems for packaging that correctly.
But Nextcloud is still a highly relevant package for Debian.

Cheers,

	Xav

#835086#10
Date:
2016-09-20 17:38:28 UTC
From:
To:
Nack. It's not an important package if we can't support it properly.
Let's not repeat the owncloud disaster.

Cheers,
        Moritz

#835086#15
Date:
2016-09-21 06:53:12 UTC
From:
To:
Le mardi 20 septembre 2016 à 19:38 +0200, Moritz Mühlenhoff a écrit :
[...]

OK, I understand the "official" debian point of view.

Regards,
	Xav

#835086#20
Date:
2016-09-22 11:08:31 UTC
From:
To:
    Xavier> Le mardi 20 septembre 2016 à 19:38 +0200, Moritz Mühlenhoff
    Xavier> a écrit :
    >> On Mon, Aug 22, 2016 at 12:02:59PM +0200, Xavier Bestel wrote:
    >> >
    >> > Package: wnpp > Severity: wishlist
    >> >
    >> > * Package name    : nextcloud
    Xavier> [...]
    >> > Given that Nextcloud is an Owncloud fork, with the same people
    >> > behind it, and that Owncloud upstream has always had a
    >> difficult > relationship with distro maintainers, there may be
    >> problems for > packaging that correctly.  > But Nextcloud is
    >> still a highly relevant package for Debian.
    >>
    >> Nack. It's not an important package if we can't support it
    >> properly.  Let's not repeat the owncloud disaster.

    Xavier> OK, I understand the "official" debian point of view.

I don't think this is an official Debian POV, simply the opinion of some
Debian contributors...  Well, I think it is the official Debian POV that
in order to include a package, we need to be able to support it.
Whether we will or will not be able to support nextcloud is up to
interpretation.

From a user standpoint, having something that has the functionality of
opencloud/nextcloud is quite important in the enterprise space.
However, we do need to be able to get things to work.

#835086#25
Date:
2016-09-22 16:19:56 UTC
From:
To:
Le 22/09/2016 à 01:08, Sam Hartman a écrit :

Moritz is an active and well known member of the security team. As the
current (or previous…) almost only maintainer of owncloud in Debian, I
do agree with this (strong) advice.

The current ownCloud upstream maintainers reached back to us a few
months ago and are willing to help (or at least not be as obnoxious as
the ones who drove the package away from Debian, and are now gone in the
nextcloud fork team). If someone wants the owncloud package back, I
suggest them to join the current packaging team and eventually take over.

Regards

David

#835086#30
Date:
2016-09-22 16:33:35 UTC
From:
To:
Hi David,

David Prévot wrote:

That still doesn't make his opinion "official". I don't think that
something like an "official Debian opinion" exists at all.

Do I read that right, the chances for nextCloud in Debian are rather
low while the chances to get ownCloud back in Debian raised due to the
obnoxious upstream developers left together with nextCloud fork and
the remaining developers are more friendly towards distributions?

		Regards, Axel

#835086#35
Date:
2016-12-12 14:24:35 UTC
From:
To:
Hi all,

upstream Nextcloud explicitly listed the ability to skip releases as one
of their goals [0], which should ease a lot of the problems of packaging
for stable.
They also stated that they hope Debian and other distributions would
provide packaging (as they won't) [1].

Kind regards,
Dan

[0]
https://help.nextcloud.com/t/nextcloud-and-its-planned-update-improvements/296
[1]
https://help.nextcloud.com/t/migrating-from-owncloud-to-nextcloud/551/31

#835086#40
Date:
2017-03-01 11:46:44 UTC
From:
To:

#835086#45
Date:
2017-03-01 12:12:52 UTC
From:
To:
Hi,

e-gleich-m-c-quadrat@fantasymail.de wrote:

At least owncloud-client is still in Debian:

https://packages.qa.debian.org/o/owncloud-client.html
https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=owncloud-client

		Regards, Axel

#835086#50
Date:
2017-12-07 15:14:22 UTC
From:
To:
Having the nextcloud client in Debian is useful even without the server.
Currently I'm using this build:
https://m4lvin.github.io/nextcloud-client-debian-packaging/

#835086#55
Date:
2018-06-24 09:24:47 UTC
From:
To:
In june 2018 there was https://lists.debian.org/debian-mentors/2018/06/msg00187.html
and a git repository created at Salsa

#835086#60
Date:
2019-09-03 08:35:25 UTC
From:
To:
Hi,

Does the situation has evolved since 2018 ? I see that the client tools
are now in Debian, but is there any chance to have NextCloud server in
Debian ?

Upstream does not seems to provide any repository at all, contrary to
ownCloud.

Kind regards,

Adrien

#835086#65
Date:
2019-10-04 01:50:21 UTC
From:
To:
 * Package name    : nextcloud-server
   Version         : 0.1.7
   Upstream Author : Antonio Russo <antonio.e.russo@gmail.com>
 * URL             : https://gitlab.com/aerusso/nextcloud-server-deb
 * License         : AGPL
 * Vcs             : https://gitlab.com/aerusso/nextcloud-server-deb
   Section         : net
   Description     : Nextcloud folder synchronization tool (server)

Nextcloud is an increasingly popular software package.  A first-class
integration of Nextcloud into Debian is desirable, but represents
a significant challenge because upstream development is unlikely to
produce long-cycled supported releases compatible with the Debian
release cycle.

This packaging sidesteps that issue by providing version-independent
tools to download, install, configure, update, and manage the server.
Although unconventional, such tools are not unheard of in Debian [1,2].

The current version is suitable for beta testing, and should eventually
reach maturity compatible with Debian stable.

Thank you,
Antonio Russo

[1] ttf-mscorefonts-installer
[2] libdvd-pkg

#835086#70
Date:
2019-10-04 07:06:15 UTC
From:
To:
Hi,

This does not mean we should make it a habit.

Have you considered and researched the fasttrack project instead?

#835086#75
Date:
2019-10-04 15:07:13 UTC
From:
To:
I think that nextcloud-server-installer would be a better package name.
Also, presumably you are targeting the contrib section rather than the
main section.

How would you feel about an actual packaging of the server (rather than
an installer) that used fastrack.debian.net?
Fastrack is intended to handle products where the security lifecycle is
too short for Debian releases.

#835086#80
Date:
2019-10-04 15:14:18 UTC
From:
To:
Yeah, that would make sense.

Yes, this would be contrib.

I'm guessing this doesn't get into Debian proper at all then?  Because I
wouldn't in good conscience let such a package enter the release cycle
(there's no way I could support it).

I did not even know about fastrack, so packaging there may be of limited
value (until it is further publicized, but I guess that's a chicken-or-egg
issue).

I'm not necessarily opposed to actually packaging the server, but it has
node dependencies (and there's really no way I can even begin to tame
that nightmare).

Will fastrack be OK with a build that is basically npm install? I can try
building something like that.

Thanks,
Antonio

#835086#85
Date:
2019-10-06 05:46:37 UTC
From:
To:
You should fix the project license on GitLab, right now it's showing all rights reserved. That should be in the project settings somewhere...

Also, have you seen <http://fasttrack.debian.net/>? That appears like it'll eventually allow a non-downloader package.