[GMG-Devel] docs: Debian / rpm-based distros and sudo / root

[Jim Campbell]

Hi All,

As things are now, our docs start out by saying, "If you're on a
Debian-based system, do this . . . but if you're on a RPM-based system
do that . . . " but those types of distinctions end after the mention of
specific python packages (i.e., there are no Fedora/RHEL/CentOS
instructions for which postgres packages to install). Based on this,
should we include instructions for the Fedora/RHEL/CentOS family in the
official docs, or should we focus just on Debian in the official docs?
Right now, the instructions are 1/4-baked on the Fedora/RHEL/CentOS
side.  

Personally, I would like to include that family of distros as an
alternate, but don't want to muck-up the docs. It would be better to
have a documentation set that people can follow-along w/o having to
constantly "do this" for one platform or "do that" for another platform
[0].  For now, I think it would be better to provide top-notch
instructions for Debian, though. What do folks think?  This would mean
removing the notes about RPM-based distros in the start, and moving
those docs elsewhere. If folks would like to include Fedora/RHEL/CentOS
in the official docs, I could add-in my Fedora/RHEL/CentOS stuff.  I’m
not sure if it’s ready, though.

Also, there are alternate instructions for sudo and root. I’d like to
eliminate the root-based instructions, and just feature use of sudo
where appropriate.  (I was actually the one who did things this way . .
. in going through it, I don’t think it works well, though  : ).  If
anyone prefers to use root, they could certainly sort out the
differences and remove the “sudo” command as they go through things. 

Jim

[0] The OpenStack docs are transitioning fully from DocBook to
Python-Sphinx, and they're working on this problem in Python-Sphinx. The
conditional-related Sphinx features don’t quite do what they want, and
they’re working on a sphinx extension to allow advanced, conditional
builds of docs. With the stuff they’re working on, they would have a
single rST/python-sphinx source document, but could build out the html
instructions for Ubuntu using one build command, and build out the html
instructions for Fedora/RHEL/CentOS using another build command.  I
think this would be nice to have for MediaGoblin in a later release.