Re: cannonball: Add a MESSAGE banner post-install with instructions to the place to copy ROMs. Suggested by nia@

[Santhosh Raju <fox%netbsd.org@localhost>]

On Mon, Jun 10, 2019 at 7:20 AM Greg Troxel <gdt%lexort.com@localhost> wrote:
>
> Santhosh Raju <fox%netbsd.org@localhost> writes:
>
> >> With binary package managers, MESSAGE no longer really works because
> >> many scroll by.  While we have a lot of them, I think most should go
> >> away.  Please put this in something like
> >> ${PREFIX}/share/doc/cannonball/README.foo instead.  This is really just
> >> 'how to configure this package' which is normal documentation.   If the
> >> upstream documentation already explains this, there is no need.
> >
> > I see, I did not know about this.
>
> That it really does not work is just true.   Whether it is a good idea
> to keep adding MESSAGE is perhaps debatable; I
>
> > The message I have put there is available in upstream documentation.
>
> Presumably people should read that then.
>

Understood. Only the first paragraph though. The rest is the location
information I described earlier.

> I am guessing that you are not packaging the ROM?  If there is a legal
> reason not to, then perhaps you should not be giving instructions, which
> amounts to the same thing.
>
> If there is no legal reason, then packging the roms seems useful.
> Although I am guessing they have a proprietary LICENSE and thus need
> RESTRICTED and NO_*_ON_*.
>
> Or perhaps there is one free rom that then becomes an example.
>
> Part of where I'm coming from is that I don't think pkgrsc should help
> people infringe copyright - and I have no idea what's going on in this
> case.
>

No, I am not packaging any ROMs here, just the "Cannonball" OutRun engine.

Even the authors of the package do not provide the ROM. The ROMs
should be obtained by the end-user. The only information given is
where to put the ROMs so that the end user can put it in the
appropriate location and execute the program.

Also packaging the ROMs would be illegal in this case as I believe
SEGA still holds the rights to the OutRun game.

> > The only information not available is "where" to actually put them
> > i.e. $XDG_DATA_HOME/cannonball/roms or
> > $HOME/.local/share/cannonball/roms depending on if the variable is
> > set.
> >
> > I can put the content of MESSAGE in a README and make it available in
> > the documentation folder.
>
> Or, you could patch the man page that the package presumably installs.
> A lot of packages do that, so that when you 'man cannonball' it gives
> the actual rights pathames on this build of pkgsrc, substituting PREFIX.
>

Unfortunately there is no manpage for this piece of software. Most of
the things that the user needs to know is put up in their Wiki, which
is set as the HOMEPAGE= in the Makefile. I can provide that link in
the README that I create.

The only thing missing out is the location (when installed from
pkgsrc) where the configuration / resources / roms are stored. Which I
can add to the README.

> > Would there be an easy way to indicate to the end user to refer to the
> > docs location (after installation), or is the end user expected to
> > know that after installing the package?
>
> I think they should know that.  Every package has a standard
> documentation location, and printing out "you just installed a package.
> maybe you should read the documentation" does not seem helpful to me.
>
> Perhaps pkg_nstall could get an environment variable or config that, if
> set, prints out a standard read-the-docs lecture.  I'm kidding about
> that, but our "read the docs" MESSAGEs have gotten out of control.

Understood :), I shall modify the package to install a basic README in
the docs folder.

Regards
Santhosh