SailfishOS:Chum community repository

The SailfishOS:Chum community repository provides a collection of applications, tools and libraries compiled for various hardware architectures and Sailfish OS release versions.

The ambition is to become the principal software distribution platform for Sailfish OS.

In contrast to the software distribution model of the Jolla Store or OpenRepos, to which binary packages are uploaded by developers, at SailfishOS:Chum software is compiled and packaged into RPMs in a reproducible manner directly from its source code. The source code used for compiling and packaging is submitted by developers to OBS (Open Build Service), which generates multiple RPM files for various combinations of hardware architectures and Sailfish OS release versions.

This scheme ensures that the complete source code of all packages at SailfishOS:Chum is available and inspectable there, and that all packages are generated solely from this source code. Hence all software packages at SailfishOS:Chum are created in a transparent and fully traceable manner.

By collecting software for Sailfish OS in a single automated build system, collaboration between developers through common packaging of shared libraries etc. is fostered, duplication of work for keeping these common packages up-to-date is eliminated, and it becomes much easier to determine which pieces of software exist and which are missing at the Sailfish OS OBS. Additionally this eases tracing multiple and potentially layered dependencies ("dependency chains") which is crucial for keeping the software supply chains of complex packages up-to-date.

The SailfishOS:Chum repository is located at the Sailfish OS OBS: build.sailfishos.org/project/show/sailfishos:chum

This repository at GitHub is used for filing general issues and publishing documentation for SailfishOS:Chum.

For the etymological origin and meanings of the word "chum", see en.wikipedia.org:Chumming and en.wiktionary.org:chum.

User's guide

There are two different ways of using the SailfishOS:Chum repository:

• with the SailfishOS:Chum GUI application
• with the usual command line tools for package management, pkcon or zypper

How to install the SailfishOS:Chum GUI application

The easiest way to install the SailfishOS:Chum GUI application built for the CPU-architecture of a device and its installed Sailfish OS release fully automatically is the SailfishOS:Chum GUI Installer. Because it is hosted at OpenRepos it can be conveniently installed via Storeman. The SailfishOS:Chum GUI Installer can also be manually downloaded from OpenRepos, GitHub or SailfishOS:Chum and then installed, e.g. by pkcon install-local <local path of package>.

Alternatively a version of the SailfishOS:Chum GUI application for a specific CPU-architecture and Sailfish OS release can be manually selected and downloaded at chumrpm.netlify.app for manual installation.

Furthermore SailfishOS:Chum GUI application's individual RPMs are also provided at the SailfishOS:Chum repository, where they can be fully manually selected and fetched from, as the SailfishOS:Chum GUI Installer does in a fully automated manner and the web-interface at chumrpm.netlify.app semi-automated.

Important note: If you experience issues while or after installing the SailfishOS:Chum GUI application, do read the installation notes!

How to deploy the configuration for command line tools

For using the SailfishOS:Chum repository by command line tools, a sailfishos-chum-repo-config helper RPM, which solely provides an appropriate local repository configuration for utilising the SailfishOS:Chum repository, is available at OpenRepos, at chumrpm.netlify.app, at GitHub and SailfishOS:Chum.

Mind that installing the SailfishOS:Chum GUI application deploys the same local repository configuration, so your device is already set for using the SailfishOS:Chum repository with the usual command line tools for package management, then.

To utilise the SailfishOS:Chum repository using command line tools on your device, you have to …

1. install either of the aforementioned packages sailfishos-chum-gui or sailfishos-chum-repo-config.
2. refresh the package cache on your device as root user per pkcon refresh or zypper ref.
3. install any software packages you like from the SailfishOS:Chum repository as root user by executing pkcon install <package name> or zypper in <package name>. You can also search for available packages by executing pkcon search name <search string> or zypper se <search string>.

As software packages at SailfishOS:Chum have their vendor set to chum by default (but this can be overrridden in a package's spec file), for most packages it is easy to determine which ones are installed from the SailfishOS:Chum repository by executing:
rpm -qa --queryformat '%{vendor}:%{name}\n' | fgrep chum

Developer's guide

There are no major restrictions imposed on software submitted to SailfishOS:Chum. Although one limitation is that submitted software should not interfere with any software distributed by Jolla as a part of Sailfish OS, which also means that updating or replacing libraries distributed by Jolla's repositories must be avoided. Note that Jolla's repositories provide far more software packages than the ones installed by default.

All kinds of software for Sailfish OS are welcome at SailfishOS:Chum, for example, actively maintained software for SFOS, abandoned software for SFOS, and tools and libraries which are missing on SFOS as distributed by Jolla. Depending on the type of software, the recommended way of submitting software to SailfisOS:Chum varies, as described in the sections below.

The overall process is as follows.

1. For the initial submission of a software package:
   • Make your software package successfully compile at the Sailfish OS OBS.
   • Submit your package to the SailfishOS:Chum:Testing repository sailfishos:chum:testing by using the "Submit package" action of OBS. A version has to be specified when submitting.
   • The sailfishos:chum:testing maintainers will accept or reject your request and check if your software package successfully builds at the SailfishOS:Chum:Testing repository. If all is fine, the package will be promoted to the main sailfishos:chum repository by the SailfishOS:Chum maintainers. If something went wrong, you will be notified to resolve the issue.
2. After a successful initial submission, you will be made maintainer of your software package in the sailfishos:chum:testing repository, which allows you to handle updates in a simplified manner:
   • For updating your package, prepare the source, then update the version information accordingly in the OBS service file _service at sailfishos:chum:testing: This will trigger a new build at OBS.
   • Check that your software package successfully builds at the SailfishOS:Chum:Testing repository. Note that this needs some patience and might require reloading the browser window or using osc blt at the command line to observe that OBS progresses.
   • Ultimately use the "Submit package" action to trigger promoting your package from sailfishos:chum:testing to sailfishos:chum: Fill the form with sailfishos:chum as the target repository, the target package field shall be left empty to reuse the existing name at sailfishos:chum:testing and the description can be left empty, as it is a free text field only for this submit request.

As a reference, see the maintainer's tasks document for a list of checks and balances performed by the SailfishOS:Chum maintainers.

Also note the documentation for the additional metadata for SailfishOS:Chum in RPM spec files.

Asking for help

If something is not clear or you become stuck in the process, feel free to ask for help via the IRC channel #sailfishos (you may contact piggz or rinigus there), the Sailfish OS forum, or filing an issue here at GitHub.

For an OBS primer, see our Getting Started with OBS document.

You may also ask someone else to package some software for you. Just be aware that for this to work out, you might need to provide some incentive.

Submitting actively maintained software

If a package is already compiled at the Sailfish OS OBS, simply use the "Submit package" action for the package and all its dependencies, which are not yet available as part of the SailfishOS:Chum repository or Jolla's RPM repositories.

If you are not using the Sailfish OS OBS yet, you should obtain an account there by contacting the user lbt via direct message at the Sailfish OS Forum or the IRC channel #sailfishos, and then configure your software package at the Sailfish OS OBS; alternatively you may ask the SailfishOS:Chum maintainers to add your software to the SailfishOS:Chum:Testing repository as a preliminary measure.

For actively developed or maintained software for SFOS, it is expected that the source code is fetched from the software repository where it is developed. In contrast to the subsequent paragraph, no requests for forking a software as a project under the GitHub organisation sailfishos-chum are expected for actively maintained software.

Submitting abandoned software

If an application or other software for SFOS has not been picked up by some other developer (please check thoroughly first), it is suggested to open an issue at this repository requesting to add that software as a project under the GitHub organisation sailfishos-chum. The link to the original git repository at GitHub, GitLab or elsewhere must be included.

The request will be evaluated and a fork of the software into the GitHub organisation sailfishos-chum might be created. If necessary, the packaging scripts will be updated and ultimately the software might be added to the SailfishOS:Chum:Testing repository with the perspective of promotion to the SailfishOS:Chum main repository.

Submitting third party software

If you want to submit software, which is actively maintained as an upstream version (for example, libraries or tools as Midnight Commander), it is suggested to request creating a repository at the GitHub organisation sailfishos-chum and adding it to the Sailfish OS OBS. For that, open an issue at this repository, the SailfishOS:Chum maintainers will create a source code repository for you in which you will be able to adapt and package the software as needed for Sailfish OS.

If you already have a source code repository for adapting and packaging the software for Sailfish OS, it can be either forked by the GitHub organisation sailfishos-chum or, at your choice, transferred to this organisation; alternatively you may follow the approach described for actively maintained software.

For adapting and packaging the software for Sailfish OS, perferably use the scheme Jolla employs for the majority of Sailfish OS packages: Add the upstream source code repository as a submodule and maintain your patches and packaging scripts in your downstream repository.

SailfishOS:Chum FAQ

• My software requires specific SFOS versions, can I still use the SailfishOS:Chum repository?
  Yes, you can. You simply have to disable the unsupported SFOS versions and / or architectures in the OBS Meta settings for your package. Take a look at Pure Maps' OBS Meta settings as an example.

• Can I build differently depending on the Sailfish OS version?
  Yes, you can. You can use the RPM macro %sailfishos_version to build differently depending on the release version. This works in the same manner as for other Linux distributions, so you can support multiple Linux distributions with a single spec file. For details, see openSUSE:Build_Service_cross_distribution_howto.
  Alternatively you may use the OBS-specific RPM macro %_repository, which resolves to, e.g. sailfishos4.4.0.72_aarch64. The architecture part can also be queried specifically by the classic RPM macros %ifarch and %ifnarch.

• Can I use the RPMs of my software built at SailfishOS:Chum to upload them to the Jolla Store?
  Mind that RPMs built at SailfishOS:Chum have Vendor set to chum by default, which is not allowed at the Jolla Store ("harbour"), as any other value (meego might be an exception). However, it is easy to set up a personal repository at the Sailfish OS OBS (which sets Vendor to meego by default for packages built there), configure sailfishos:chum to provide the required dependencies and re-build your packages at your own repository. Alternatively you may explicitly set Vendor: in the spec file, but then these RPMs are not identifyable as being built at SailfishOS:Chum or the Sailfish OS OBS, despite being offered there (unless Vendor: is set to chum or meego). Note that you cannot unset Vendor by %undefine vendor.
  As a result, you will get automated builds for all architectures wanted without Vendor set to chum in your RPMs.

• Can I use the RPMs of my software built at SailfishOS:Chum to upload them to OpenRepos or elsewhere?
  While you could do that, it is not recommended to re-distribute RPMs from SailfishOS:Chum because they have Vendor set to chum by default (unless explicitly set to something else), which will prevent users from distinguishing whether a package was directly installed from the SailfishOS:Chum repository or from some other package repository, and additionally overrides package store separation by "Vendor stickiness" (see also next bullet point). For a way to automatically build packages at the Sailfish OS OBS utilising SailfishOS:Chum for dependencies, but having Vendor not set to chum, see previous answer.

• Can I set the Vendor field of my software built at SailfishOS:Chum to a value used elsewhere in order to avoid "Vendor stickiness", which prevents cross-repository updates?
  Though this implies the drawbacks denoted in the two previous points, you can do that. This thread details this and the two prior bullet points.

• Are there limitations on the licensing of the software which is submitted to SailfishOS:Chum?
  Yes, in general solely software which is distributed under an OSI approved license might be submitted to the Sailfish OS OBS. Exceptions may be made in special cases as firmware blobs, but in general this guidance shall be obeyed: openSUSE:Build_Service_application_blacklist