FreeOffice 970 tarball hash change

[iswrong]

We have packaged both FreeOffice and SoftMaker Office in nixpkgs:

https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/m ... office.nix
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/m ... office.nix

For each source, we specify a SHA checksum, both to obtain a 'fixed-output derivation' and to verify that the source has not been tampered with. We noticed that the checksum for the version that we package (970) has changed:

https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/71225

Upon further inspection, I found that this is the same hash as the new 971 release:

Code: Select all

$ nix-prefetch-url https://www.softmaker.net/down/softmaker-freeoffice-970-amd64.tgz
path is '/nix/store/sq8a5lbmr6z64k0jy5lz745gsj68dlb6-softmaker-freeoffice-970-amd64.tgz'
1h36pjbpbiy4cw383cbrwh1jx2kp1ay29734zailmhifz53gj44f
$ nix-prefetch-url https://www.softmaker.net/down/softmaker-freeoffice-971-amd64.tgz
path is '/nix/store/bwgmb9inn4mza0lhs4hmsxyx53nnn0h9-softmaker-freeoffice-971-amd64.tgz'
1h36pjbpbiy4cw383cbrwh1jx2kp1ay29734zailmhifz53gj44f

Could you consider keeping older version tarballs in-tact? This would avoid breakage in downstream package managers and give people time to update to the new version in package definitions. If not, that would be good to hear as well, but I guess inclusion in nixpkgs should then be reconsidered, since it's not nice to break people's system updates .

[martin-k]

This is a bit tricky for us. We have to version RPM and DEB packages, so we do the same for TGZ. And, since we send out e-mails with download links, we use .htaccess rewriting to always point them to the latest version. Could you host the TGZ packages yourselves? Then you are in control which version is delivered under which URL.

If you don't want to discuss this in public, you can contact us at info (at) softmaker.com

[iswrong]

Could you host the TGZ packages yourselves? Then you are in control which version is delivered under which URL.

Sorry for reporting back so late! I raised the issue in the NixOS forums. Although Nix has an archive for tarballs, it is only used for hosting (open) source tarballs. Two other possible options came out of the discussions:

• Make a GitHub repository and use the GitHub releases feature to upload the .tgz files.
• Use archive.org's upload functionality: https://help.archive.org/hc/en-us/artic ... asic-Guide

Would any of these two options be acceptable to you for FreeOffice and SoftMaker Office?

Ps. I received some private messages from people who are really happy to see Free/SoftMaker Office in NixOS. Seems you have some fans our corner of the Linux ecosystem as well .

[miguel-c]

Thanks, I've forwarded this to the product manager.

[iswrong]

Thanks! Any updates?

(We bumped into this problem again due to the recent updates of FreeOffice and Softmaker Office to 976.)

[miguel-c]

Nothing yet, sorry

[iswrong]

Sorry for asking again, but is there any progress on this issue?

If not, I fear that I will have to do a PR soon to remove SoftMaker Office and FreeOffice from nixpkgs/NixOS. This package breaks every time a new Office version is released and due how to Nix/NixOS work (the whole system configuration should be buildable), a user can't update their system unless they remove SoftMaker Office/FreeOffice from their system configuration while the package is broken.

[miguel-c]

Let me push this issue again.

[iswrong]

Let me inquire again if there are any updates .

[martin-k]

This took me a really long time to respond, but we are no longer changing the FreeOffice downloads for specific URLs. We can do this since we no longer send out e-mails with download URLs.

From now on, the revision of FreeOffice available under a given URL will stay unchanged.

[iswrong]

This took me a really long time to respond, but we are no longer changing the FreeOffice downloads for specific URLs. We can do this since we no longer send out e-mails with download URLs.

I only read this just now. That's great news! Thanks a lot, this makes things much easier for us.