2.2.0 release not available on FTP server

[sebastic]

Description of the problem

https://www.generic-mapping-tools.org/download/ links to DCW 2.2.0, which is a GitHub release artifact.

These are unfortunately unusable for the Debian package which still relies on the FTP server to find the downloads.

The release checklist includes:

Run make place-dcw to place the zip file on the dcw ftp and website (@Pwessel).

But dcw-gmt-2.1.2.tar.gz is still the most release DCW release on the FTP server.

[joa-quim]

I don't know how we can solve this. You may not know but Paul Wessel passed away last Mars and while his ftp site is still active I doubt any of us can update files there anymore. And, as you understand, this wouldn't be a sustainable situation.

[sebastic]

I did not know that, I'm sorry for your loss.

I suspect the GitHub hosted generic-mapping-tools.org websites can't host the downloads itself, hosting copies of the downloads on the website would be an obvious choice otherwise.

We might be able to use the GitHub tags and build dcw-gmt.nc ourselves, but that introduces a build dependency loop as gmt is used by the Makefile.

We could also switch to monitoring https://www.generic-mapping-tools.org/download/ and live with the loss of our ability to download other versions than just the latest DCW & GSHHG.

Where do you recommend packagers to look for new releases other than https://github.com/GenericMappingTools/dcw-gmt/releases?

[joa-quim]

We actually have the DCW package hosted also in the GMT server (same machine that hosts https://www.generic-mapping-tools.org) and even have code inside GMT to downloaded the dcw-gmt.nc file. I will have to debug to see how that is done and in principle it should be a reproducible process. I know that we use curl for that.

[seisman]

We actually have the DCW package hosted also in the GMT server (same machine that hosts https://www.generic-mapping-tools.org)

Here is the link: https://oceania.generic-mapping-tools.org/geography/dcw/

I don't know how we can solve this.

Can we just merge the FTP server into the data server as mentioned in GenericMappingTools/gmtserver-admin#83.

[anbj]

Out of curiosity; can you share a link to Debian’s Makefile for gmt?

[Esteban82]

The DCW is also availalbe in Zenodo. There you can get the last 3 versions:
https://zenodo.org/search?q=parent.id%3A6823056&f=allversions%3Atrue&l=list&p=1&s=10&sort=version

[sebastic]

Can we just merge the FTP server into the data server as mentioned in GenericMappingTools/gmtserver-admin#83.

That sounds good, only the unpacked tree is available there currently.

Out of curiosity; can you share a link to Debian’s Makefile for gmt?

Debian packages are more than just a Makefile, the gmt source package for Debian can be found in Salsa:

https://salsa.debian.org/debian-gis-team/gmt/-/tree/master/debian?ref_type=heads

Which you can find via its Tracker page:

https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gmt

The same goes for DCW & GSHHG:

https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gmt-dcw
https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/gmt-gshhg

I've switched the gmt package over to monitoring the GitHub tags like we do for many other packages, and the dcw & gshhg packages to monitoring the links on the download page as that doesn't require JavaScript unlike the GitHub releases page.

[anbj]

Thanks!

[joa-quim]

Can we just merge the FTP server into the data server as mentioned in GenericMappingTools/gmtserver-admin#83.

How would that help to get DCW2.2.0 that is not in the ftp but is already in the data server?

[seisman]

Not sure if it will helps the debian packaging, but at least we can upload tarballs to a server that has many mirrors.

[sebastic]

Having the historic and current tarballs on the data server will certainly help the Debian packaging. We can then import any preceding releases we may have missed.

Removing any references to the FTP server and its mirrors and only referencing the data server and its mirrors as an alternative to the downloads hosted by GitHub also simplifies things.

[joa-quim]

I agree that keeping a copy of the old (and future) source code tarballs an even the Windows installers in the data server can be useful. But not the full 21 GB of data that most of it useless garbage by now (old earth_relief grids, dmg installers, etc). References to ftp servers should be dropped too.