Talk:Bibutils

From refbase

Scripps user pages are down this morning and is still down this evening. It was hard to find a second source for this package. I was able to find a Mandriva mirror for a version 3.24 source RPM. Google cache of the Scripps page suggests 3.28 as the most recent version.

Since I'm targetting a FreeBSD system, I had to consult the Suse RPM FAQ to crack the nut.

rpm2cpio bibutils-3.24-3mdv2007.0.src.rpm | cpio -iv --make-directories bibutils_3.24_src.tar.bz2

I don't yet know whether this is pristine or Mandriva-tweaked.

MaxEnt 05:52, 18 March 2007 (CET)

Thanks for the instructions, we might think of providing a mirror for the most recent Bibutils release packages. Matthias 10:49, 18 March 2007 (CET)

Sorry about the server outage. The Scripps hosting is remote for me now (my previous boss is generously donating disk space). I'm happy to have refbase mirror Bibutils, just keep a link to the original site in case I forget to update you about any updates that I make. --Cdputnam 21:54, 21 March 2007 (CET)

This Mandriva source appears to be workable. The install on FreeBSD turned out to be extremely straightforward. I made the following completely generic modification to the configure script, the compile ran with no diags at all, and the three test binaries all passed. MaxEnt 11:52, 18 March 2007 (CET)

39a40,42
> if ( ` echo $UNAME | grep FreeBSD | wc | awk '{print $1;}' ` == 1 ) then
>       set type = "FreeBSD"
> endif
75a79,84
> else if ( $type == "FreeBSD" ) then
>       cat $INPUT_FILE | \
>       sed 's/REPLACE_CC/"CC=cc"/' | \
>       sed 's/REPLACE_RANLIB/RANLIB="ranlib"/' | \
>       sed "s|REPLACE_INSTALLDIR|${INSTALLDIR}|" | \
>       sed 's/REPLACE_POSTFIX/_freebsd/' > $OUTPUT_FILE

Thanks for reporting the modifications to the configure script. Since version 3.25, FreeBSD has been supported. --Cdputnam 21:54, 21 March 2007 (CET)

Symlink idea

The reason I added the symlink paragraph is that I was getting errors from install.php and each time I hit the back button, my bibutils path was empty again. The MediaWiki installer is more forgiving. I think only the passwords are vaporized when you back up after an error. I was getting errors because I didn't understand that this install method requires access to database 'mysql' which I do not have on my shared host. MaxEnt 21:59, 18 March 2007 (CET)

Note that different browsers treat form entry fields differently when navigating backwards via the back button. As an example, Safari on Mac OS X does restore all values entered by the user, while Firefox does not. Also, if there were validation errors, refbase-0.9.0 should relocate back to the install form and restore all of your entered form values, at least this is how it works on my machine. Let us know if this is not the case for you. Using the back button is an entirely different story, though, which may depend a lot on the used browser.

MySQL admin access (i.e. access to the 'mysql' database) is required to setup a dedicated MySQL user to be used in conjunction with refbase. However, if you're on a hosted service, the easiest means of installation may be to simply copy and paste the contents of install.sql into the SQL command form of phpMyAdmin or a similar tool (this is, btw, one of the reasons why install.sql is still useful). I agree that support for a hosted server setup is not sufficiently explained in the explanatory text of install.php or the wiki. Matthias 23:52, 18 March 2007 (CET)