Launchpad itself

Can I upload binary packages to my PPA?

Asked by Alkis Georgopoulos

I've packaged a GPL'ed _Windows_ application of mine into a .deb, which depends on wine, and now it installs and functions like a normal Linux application: .desktop menu, /usr/bin/myapp launcher, file associations etc. I want to upload this into my PPA, but of course I cannot use the usual makefiles etc.

So I was thinking of building a pseudo-source package with my binaries in it. My question is if this is allowed by the PPA terms of use (https://help.launchpad.net/PPATermsofUse).

Of course I could put my sources inside the .deb file, but they would be useless; it's Delphi source code, launchpad wouldn't know what to do with it. So I just made the source code available for downloading at my personal site, and I put a link for it in the help menu of my application.
So everything's OK according to the GPL v3 license - it's only a question if binaries are allowed into PPAs.

Kind regards,
Alkis Georgopoulos

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Solved
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Launchpad itself Edit question
Assignee:
Matthew Revell Edit question
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Matthew Revell
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Launchpad Janitor (janitor) said : 		#1

This question was expired because it remained in the 'Open' state without activity for the last 15 days.

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Alkis Georgopoulos (alkisg) said : 		#2

The question expired, but I didn't get any answers.
Am I to assume that I'm not allowed to upload binary packages (of GPL'ed software) in my PPA?

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ankit verma (v-ankit007) said : 		#3

i want to install media player for ubuntu .and also apex dc but dont know how to do it ,,,,
pleaze help me out

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Alkis Georgopoulos (alkisg) said : 		#4

ankit, this isn't the correct place for your question.
Also, changing the status of my question to "needs information" is not what you think: it means that the asker should *provide* (not "wants to receive") more information.

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Best Matthew Revell (matthew.revell) said : 		#5

Sorry for the delay in replying, I thought we'd sent an email.

My suggestion would be that you host the binary packages somewhere separately. Then place a script in your PPA package that, when installed, wgets the binary onto the end-user's machine and installs it from there.

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Alkis Georgopoulos (alkisg) said : 		#6

I thought that method was for applications that had redistribution problems, like flashplayer etc, not for open source projects.

There's no point in using a PPA then - that would be useful if I didn't have access to the original download location.
And using wget to download and install a .deb file from my own apt repository instead of using the repository itself seems inefficient to me.

Thanks - I'll keep using my own repository.

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Alkis Georgopoulos (alkisg) said : 		#7

Thanks Matthew Revell, that solved my question.

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Celso Providelo (cprov) said : 		#8

Alkis

Note that you can include the built binary (if you can redistribute it) within your source package and not necessarily force users to download it when they install the binary.

vmware-player use to to do that, check https://edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/vmware-player/1.0.2-2. Its building procedure consists of simply encapsulating the binary into a proper deb file

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Christian Reis (kiko) said : 		#9

Yeah, I was about to point that out -- Alkis, you definitely can do what you want, and it is within our TOU for the PPA service. I realize it's a bit of a weird case but make sure your packaging includes the URL to the source and you're home free.

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Alkis Georgopoulos (alkisg) said : 		#10

Thank you Celso and Christian, this was the answer I was hoping for. :)

Kind regards,
Alkis Georgopoulos