how to build on AntiX debian?

[gijsbers]

3 attempts to build roxterm from github on AntiX 19 (debian 10 buster) all fail:

./AppRun 
ERROR from /home/bert/roxterm/AppRun:
I cannot find an executable file.
Trying to compile...
Configuring/compiling /home/bert/roxterm... please wait...
-- Checking for module 'vte-2.91>=0.52'
--   Found vte-2.91, version 0.54.2
-- Configuring done
-- Generating done
-- Build files have been written to: /home/bert/roxterm/build
Scanning dependencies of target manpages
[  2%] Generating roxterm.1

and it hangs forever. Then:

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
$ Scanning dependencies of target manpages
[  2%] Generating roxterm.1

forever busy without closure. Then:

cd debian
sudo apt-get build-dep roxterm
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 builddeps:roxterm : Depends: libvte-2.90-dev but it is not installable

no luck. libvte-2.91-dev is installed, but that is apparently not old enough.

[realh]

ISTR the manpage generation hanging because of some missing XML packages, which makes it want to find some stuff online, but it can't. The current Build-Depends include xsltproc and docbook-xsl, so hopefully the problem is simply that you're missing docbook-xsl.

The official Debian package has no maintainer any more, so it's very outdated and won't work with modern versions of vte and gtk3. You could use the PPA instead. Even if the binary package won't work due to AntiX/Debian stable being older than Ubuntu LTS, building a package from the source should still work.

[gijsbers]

The cmake build succeeds after installing docbook-xsl.
The default prefix is then /usr/local. Is that also the case in the PPA?

Installing from the PPA fails with this sequence:

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:h-realh/roxterm
sudo: add-apt-repository: command not found
$ command-not-found add-apt-repository
Command 'add-apt-repository' not found, but can be installed with:

sudo apt install software-properties-common

$ sudo apt install software-properties-common
Setting up software-properties-common (0.96.20.2-2) ...
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:h-realh/roxterm
Press [ENTER] to continue or ctrl-c to cancel adding it
gpg: keybox '/tmp/tmpe1_622ax/pubring.gpg' created
gpg: /tmp/tmpe1_622ax/trustdb.gpg: trustdb created
gpg: key BA0835874C32D80B: public key "Launchpad realh" imported
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg:               imported: 1
gpg: no valid OpenPGP data found.
$ sudo apt update
Ign:4 http://ppa.launchpad.net/h-realh/roxterm/ubuntu impish InRelease
Err:7 http://ppa.launchpad.net/h-realh/roxterm/ubuntu impish Release
  404  Not Found [IP: 91.189.95.85 80]
Reading package lists... Done
E: The repository 'http://ppa.launchpad.net/h-realh/roxterm/ubuntu impish Release' does not have a Release file.
N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default.
N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.
$ sudo apt upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list.d/h-realh-ubuntu-roxterm-impish.list
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/h-realh/roxterm/ubuntu impish main
# deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/h-realh/roxterm/ubuntu impish main

I understand from your comments that I can't build debian packages from within the debian subdirectory?

[realh]

There is a template for adding the repository manually:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/h-realh/roxterm/ubuntu YOUR_UBUNTU_VERSION_HERE main 
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/h-realh/roxterm/ubuntu YOUR_UBUNTU_VERSION_HERE main

In this case YOUR_UBUNTU_VERSION_HERE should be the one where the PPA contains the version of roxterm you want, so use focal.

If the binary package doesn't work, then I guess you're right, it's just as easy, if not easier (although I think there are tools to automatically update packages built from source debs), to use the source from git. I think this should work:

dpkg-buildpackage -b --no-sign

[gijsbers]

The PPA doesn't work for me still, because of errors with the gpg key.
dpkg-buildpackage -b --no-sign works splendidly.
I get debian packages in the parent directory, which I can then install with apt.

AntiX reports that 3.11.1 uses 10 MB more memory than 2.9.5, which is
prohibitive for them, because their users machines have little memory.
Is there a reason for this increase? Can it be undone?

[realh]

Everything tends to grow over time. 2.x is really old. It could be built for either GTK2 or GTK3, so if you're comparing 3.11.1 with a GTK2 version, that could be a major factor. Vte is likely to be using more memory now than it used to, because it has more features. Also check the scrollback size option.