Re: [LUG] I hope an interesting question on real-world systems

[Simon Waters <Simon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Tony Atkin wrote:
> 40mb and a slow connection...

And tar's within tar's within.... The shell scripting style is
"highly unusual" as my code metrics package use to say.

> > What is the recipe for getting this to compile and
> > run on my SuSE Linux 7.2
> > system?

Okay I get as far (REDHAT 7.0) as the postgres build at the end
of tclinstall (called at the end of install.sh).

The postgresql "gmake" command fails as it is assuming
"slackware" path names for ld.

This is because he ran configure on his system, probably with
some options to say where it should install, and it found "ld"
from this directory on his system. It also inserted the target
install directory which is drug_program/pgsql I'm guessing.

Whether it is wiser just to fudge it and create directories and
symbolic links, or better to run "configure" in the Postgres
directory I'm not sure.

To fudge you want something like "cd /usr/ ; ln -s / slackware",
or install Postgres-7.3.1 from an RPM and be prepared to edit a
few file locations.

To configure, you'd have to remove "config.cache" from the
postgres directory, and type "./configure". I'm rashly trying
this first, and it is compiling many hours later still ;(

In retrospect probably better to try manually running the
commands from "gmake" at the end of tclinstall.tcl, read the
path error and make a symlink that works as above ;)

Doing it for "real" I think you want to build a server using a
distro package manager to pull the right versions of everything
together. This bundling it all up in a huge tar file goes
against my configuration management better feelings (Although it
does have benefits in other ways).

My initial thoughts on looking at the file lurking is that it
does a lot of "integrating" technology. The core stuff appears
to be TCL and Postgres utilising Postgres TCLET features
(Postgres is amazingly features - Oracle eat your heart out).

All those little "addins" make me nervous, but I suspect if they
are like xvoice, a lot of them are not "critical" components,
but just a demo of how things can be integrated, or have been
integrated.

Bits and Pieces in here..... Just for a feeling...

expect 5.32
tk
tcl8.4
GNU gdbm
Number of TCL adding utilities like Soap.
crypt and openssl libraries (Presumably part of the TCL web
server stuff).
couple of widget libraries
GNU pg
There is some sort of lurking Certificate authority libraries.
word2x  (A file conversion tool - not word, but other document
formats including
               wordperfect)
Postgres Relational Database
xvoice
TCL Web server
TCL plug ins for browsers
faxviewing tool
TCL drivers for Postgres 
An Address book tool in Perl
Reportlab tool in Python
....Miscellaneous bits and pieces....

Some of these like gdbm and OpenSSL are mainstream Linux
infrastructure - you probably already have a newer version in
your distro - and will fade into the background.

The TCL, TK, Expect, Postgres, WebServer stuff fit together
nicely, and require two areas of skill (TCL and Postgres)

Finding a support company with skills in Python, TCL, Postgres,
Perl, may be fun. You may have to settle for brilliant and
learns quick.

The prevalence of ".bak" files and the like leave me wondering
if the whole thing is under configuration management. Is there a
sourceforge project or equivalent, with some of this under CVS?

Angelicising - no idea yet. Lot of drug information in the
system, looks like a lot have the same names, alternatively you
might have another source of similar documents, I suspect this
is something that the end users would drive, and largely do
given a few pointers.

Looks like some security shortcuts exist here and there, but
that needs doing as part of a more thorough assessment.

My guess other than "sorting it out", and creating a little more
"order", documentation, version control, testing. 

Angelcising it is principally going to come down to how
different UK workflow is from what it does. I don't think there
are specific technical issues.

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