[tor-bugs] #5236 [Tor bundles/installation]: Make a deb of the Torbrowser and add to repository

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#5236: Make a deb of the Torbrowser and add to repository
--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------
 Reporter:  cypherpunks               |          Owner:                   
     Type:  enhancement               |         Status:  needs_information
 Priority:  normal                    |      Milestone:                   
Component:  Tor bundles/installation  |        Version:                   
 Keywords:                            |         Parent:                   
   Points:                            |   Actualpoints:                   
--------------------------------------+-------------------------------------

Comment(by micahlee):

 Thanks Mike, that's good to know.

 I've been thinking about this a lot. Although solution 2 is more Debian-
 like, I feel like solution 1 is much cleaner. With solution 1 there's no
 need to modify the config files and undo a lot of work that has been to
 make TBB portable. But I also understand that it's not really the right
 way to package software.

 So I decided to start working on a completely separate piece of software
 called Tor Browser Launcher, which is a program that helps you download,
 upgrade, and run TBB. It's not functional yet, but code so far is here:
 https://github.com/micahflee/torbrowser-launcher

 The way GNU/Linux users are supposed to use TBB is by downloading the
 correct tarball for their architecture and language, extracting it
 somewhere (probably in their home directory, unless they want to keep it
 on a USB stick or something), and running it by executing start-tor-
 browser. Tor Browser Launcher can just handle all of this for the user.

 It won't be bundled with any TBB tarballs (it will download them as
 needed), and it will have a GTK interface when needed to help users
 download it for the first time or download upgrades. It will extract TBB
 into a different dir depending on architecture and language, so if someone
 wants to mount the same home dir on multiple architectures it will work
 fine. It will also extract upgrades over the previous versions, so
 bookmarks can get preserved.

 I'm also writing it in such a way that it can indeed get included in
 Debian.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/5236#comment:18>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
The Tor Project: anonymity online