silc-client debian packages for silc v 1.0.4.1 and silc-server debian packages for v 1.0.4

These debian etch packages were built in the following way: They should be installable against modern etch or sid systems. If anyone wants a package installable against sarge instead, please let me know. i think backporting should be as simple as decrementing the debhelper compatibility level to 4.

I confess i'm not happy with the result. Further inspection of the packaging scheme used is pretty scary, actually. The package is extremely far from meeting policy, let alone being aesthetically pleasing.

The proper way to implement this package, i think, would be as an irssi module that would depend on the latest version of irssi, rather than including full irssi sources in the build. This would mean that the silc folks wouldn't need to worry about tracking vulnerabilities in irssi, as long as there was no change to the module API used by silc.

However, i don't understand the build process well enough to do this just yet. I also don't quite understand the relationship between silc-toolkit (in debian, apparently unmaintained with severe policy violations), and silc-client. Perhaps we need to kick silc-toolkit into shape first, and then figure out how to make an irssi-silc (with Provides: silc-client) as a dependency of silc-toolkit and irssi?

Comments are welcome. You can reach me at the e-mail address i used to post about this page on silc-devel.

Update: I've now tried backporting this to sarge as well. You can see the results in the package named *-0.sarge_dkg1*.

i've installed and run the sarge packages on a couple machines, and they seem to work for me.

Update: (Sun Oct 1 19:12:06 EDT 2006) i've just rebuilt silc-server 1.0.2 using the packaging that was visible for 0.9.18. it built on a sarge system with no complaints. The silc-server files below are the result. It seems to install and run cleanly on a debian etch machine as of the end of 2006. It also seems to run fine on a debian sarge machine.
Update: (Tue, 06 Mar 2007 22:58:55 -0500) since the security advisory came out for silc-server version 1.0.3, i rebuilt the silc-server packages again. Please use the new packages.

as of Wed, 07 Mar 2007 13:51:09 -0500, i've also built silc-server 1.0.3 against sarge (the *sarge_dkg* packages). I have not tested the sarge packages at all. Please let me know if you try them.

Update: (Sun, 08 Apr 2007 16:16:27 -0400) upgraded the client to 1.0.4.1. Since etch just released, and i'm not happy with the state of the packaging anyway, i'm not bothering to backport it to sarge. The 1.0.4.1 silc-client deb itself has been run cleanly on at least one i386 etch/sid machine.
Please use any of these packages at your own risk! But let me know if you have any comments, feedback, trouble, etc.
Update: (Mon, 08 Jan 2007 16:12:20 -0500) i also just added a diff that applies cleanly to debian's gaim package, if you're interested in rebuilding gaim to support silc on debian.
Update: (Tue, 10 Apr 2007 09:41:17 -0400) i just added silc-toolkit-packaging-v1.0.2.diff as an example for debian bug 413790.
Update: (Tue, 15 May 2007 20:43:38 -0400) i just added a new monolithic silc-server deb packaging of version 1.0.4. It is running in at least one location. (Wed, 16 May 2007 14:02:41 -0400): updated to 1.0.4-2, loosening one of the filesystem permissions checks on silcd.prv.
Update: (Mon, 21 May 2007 22:37:11 -0400) just backported silc-server to sarge, and uploaded those packages here. They have been tested on at least one running sarge machine.