Packaging Leafpad for Linux Mint

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andrewsmith
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Packaging Leafpad for Linux Mint

Post by andrewsmith »

Hello

I've been using Linux Mint for a few years, and I much appreciate the work that everyone has put in to make it the best desktop Linux distro.

One thing I've been missing for a release or two is Leafpad. It's a Notepad-like text editor for Linux.

I know there is Xed, I tried to use it but it's not what I want. I'm not saying it's a bad application, but it doesn't support the workflow I'm used to, and I doubt it ever will. I know there are many other text editors, but again, they are not what I want.

What I want is a Notepad for Linux. And Leafpad is literally the only such application.

From the website http://tarot.freeshell.org/leafpad/ it looks like it hasn't been updated for 11 years, but I have no problem with that. I built it and installed it and it works great. I'll be happy to just use that but I'd like to help others who don't know how to compile software.

I would like to take over maintenance of that project, and also volunteer to maintain a Linux Mint package for Leafpad. Is that a possibility? I can't find any information on how one would do that. I'm a C developer and I maintain a couple of GTK2 applications - therefore I can handle all the source code stuff. But I've always relied on other volunteers to package my apps for distributions, so I have almost no experience with that.

Does Linux Mint welcome new packages or do I have to go through Debian?

I guess I could just start maintaining Leafpad again and wait for volunteers to show up to package it...

Andrew
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antikythera
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Re: Packaging Leafpad for Linux Mint

Post by antikythera »

Have you tried Mousepad? It doesn't matter that it was written for XFCE if you aren't using that environment. It appears to be a currently maintained fork of Leafpad

https://screenshots.debian.net/package/mousepad
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andrewsmith
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Re: Packaging Leafpad for Linux Mint

Post by andrewsmith »

Oh, cool, thanks!

Good thing I asked before taking on maintenance of another project :)
Neil Edmond
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Re: Packaging Leafpad for Linux Mint

Post by Neil Edmond »

FWIW, I think it would be nice if someone would make Leafpad readily available for Debian/Ubuntu. I've tried, and used, Mousepad, Featherpad and others, but none fit the bill as well as Leafpad. I'm getting by as it, but sure would like a easy way to install Leafpad again.
andrewsmith
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Re: Packaging Leafpad for Linux Mint

Post by andrewsmith »

What does it have over Mousepad?
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xenopeek
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Re: Packaging Leafpad for Linux Mint

Post by xenopeek »

andrewsmith wrote: Wed Oct 21, 2020 2:28 pmDoes Linux Mint welcome new packages or do I have to go through Debian?
The Linux Mint repository is limited to Linux Mint developed software, upstream software with adjustments for Linux Mint maintained by Linux Mint and select few programs of general interest to Linux Mint users that are not in the package base repositories. I think you'll agree most users would just use the included text editor. So I don't think the route for this is the Linux Mint repository.

If Mousepad doesn't fit the bill... If you want to keep it on GTK+2 it might be useful to maintain such a package as an AppImage as you will be running with unmaintained libraries that will likely not be in the main repositories at some point. With an AppImage people can just download and run; it includes all the needed libraries with it. Alternatively you could set up a PPA on Launchpad using Ubuntu's build service or make a repository with OpenSUSE's build service. Users can then add the repository to their system to easily install and update your package. Or you could roll your own .deb package.

Do you want to keep this on GTK+2 though? At some point there was an effort to port leafpad to GTK+3: https://github.com/stevenhoneyman/l3afpad. Looks inactive now but maybe one of its forks continued the work. If this isn't all superseded by Mousepad already.

So I guess this would start by you setting goals and trying to contact the leafpad developer (if you can track him down after all these years) to see if you maybe can take over maintenance of the project. Else you will have to fork it first. In that case you will need to have some place for your fork's project like on GitHub or GitLab. If you then want to get your software in the main repository and not provide an AppImage or your own repository or .deb file, the route would be through Debian I think. That way the package also gets into Ubuntu and Linux Mint. For this you might try finding out why leafpad was removed from Debian buster and newer. A quick search didn't answer it but there's probably something in Debian's package tracker or mailinglist archive about this. Otherwise you might try contacting the current Debian maintainer. I mean, if there was something blocking leafpad inclusion on Debian buster that would need solving first.
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andrewsmith
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Re: Packaging Leafpad for Linux Mint

Post by andrewsmith »

Thank you for the detailed answer xenopeek!
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Re: Packaging Leafpad for Linux Mint

Post by Pjotr »

Mousepad installs cleanly in Cinnamon (and in MATE as well, I expect). Even though it's part of the Xfce ecosystem. No different from Leafpad in any meaningful way, as far as I can see.... And I used to install Leafpad as a matter of course for many years.

Nice: out of the box, you can launch Mousepad very simply with root permissions with pkexec:

Code: Select all

pkexec mousepad
It certainly beats Xed in that respect.
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t42
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Re: Packaging Leafpad for Linux Mint

Post by t42 »

I'm using everywhere this deb package from stretch (oldstable)
leafpad_0.8.18.1-5_amd64.deb
It's working fine in Linux Mint 20.
Mousepad can't edit some specific files, Leafpad can do it. Also Mousepad, xed and gedit 15 times slower opening a big file: 70Gb - 40 sec vs 3 sec Leafpad vs 1.5 sec nano.
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MrEen
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Re: Packaging Leafpad for Linux Mint

Post by MrEen »

t42 wrote: Mon Oct 26, 2020 6:43 pm Mousepad can't edit some specific files, Leafpad can do it.
Are these text files? Can you give an example?
t42
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Re: Packaging Leafpad for Linux Mint

Post by t42 »

They are 99% text files with some alien patches that trigger an open file error during a character encoding conversion phase. It is by design but it is an unwanted feature in the specific case and leafpad conveniently ignores this situation.
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MrEen
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Re: Packaging Leafpad for Linux Mint

Post by MrEen »

Ahh, gotcha.
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