Status of this project? Linux Binarys? Debian build issues? Better documentation? Debian Repos's etc?

[Danrancan]

I am a tinkerer and found this app relatively interesting, and would like to try it out, but it doesnt seem to get much activity these days. I would like to know what the status of this app is, especially after @PeterSurda got his keys compromised. Here are a few questions that I have:

1. Is this still under any real active development and actually being worked on anymore?
2. Is PeterSurda still heading this project?
3. Is PeterSurda Okay?
4. Why are there no binaries for linux/debian, and can we ever expect any?
5. Can we ever expect this app to be packaged into a repo?
6. Why is this so difficult to run on debian with requirements/dependancies being those of outdated software including python?
7. On a scale of 1-10, what would be the security rating of this app in terms of how refined and audited the code is?
8. How close to production level is this app?
9. Why are the instructions for debian so difficult and convoluted, with many dependancies being unlisted, and requirements to run the app being unlisted?
10. Do you need any help with documentation for this app on debian? It needs it badly.

Thanks for the answers and help. I like trying out experimental software and getting it to work properly. Let me know if there is anything I can do to assist with this project.

Danran

[PeterSurda]

Thank you for your interest in the project. The latest update is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/bitmessage/comments/cjxk9s/current_status_of_pybitmessage/ and it still mostly holds. The summary is, a lot of effort is being spent on improving Bitmessage, but this has a lot of changes and prerequisites, so it's taking long.

Is this still under any real active development and actually being worked on anymore?

Yes, there are several developers working on it every day. Most of the work isn't visible in the main repo because it is in the infrastructure and preparing for PRs.

Is PeterSurda still heading this project?

Yes.

Is PeterSurda Okay?

Yes, unfortunately for private reasons I don't have as much time available for the project as I'd like.

Why are there no binaries for linux/debian, and can we ever expect any?

This is a complicated question. We now do have automated builds for ubuntu 18.04, but the resulting binaries aren't published, they are just used for checks. You can view the build process and build it yourself, it should work on debian too. I think this is the latest build log: https://buildbot.bitmessage.org/#/builders/14/builds/1217

Can we ever expect this app to be packaged into a repo?

It's being worked on but may still take time.

Why is this so difficult to run on debian with requirements/dependancies being those of outdated software including python?

The main problem is probably incompatibility with python3, this now has top priority but still will probably take a while.

On a scale of 1-10, what would be the security rating of this app in terms of how refined and audited the code is?
How close to production level is this app?

Not sure how to answer that. Since about 2.5 years we've been focusing on improving the quality of the code and the processes, so it's better than before.

Why are the instructions for debian so difficult and convoluted, with many dependancies being unlisted, and requirements to run the app being unlisted?

Nobody is updating the wiki.

Do you need any help with documentation for this app on debian? It needs it badly.

Yes, definitely. New wiki accounts can't edit at the moment, due to spam, but I can manually change your permissions if you want to update it.

[Danrancan]

WOW! Thanks for all of the info and answers. Sorry for the late response. I got a bit busy.
Yes, add me with some permissions to the wiki, and I will create some tutorials on how to get things properly working and set up with different cleanly installed distributions (Debian 9/10, Ubuntu's, etc.). I already have a private wiki (just notes) that I created for myself so if you add me to the wiki, i will just post my results and findings directly on the wiki instructions in proper formatting.

[Danrancan]

Yes, definitely. New wiki accounts can't edit at the moment, due to spam, but I can manually change your permissions if you want to update it.

Again, I'm willing to help with the Wiki. In the meantime, I wrote a quick mach-up tutorial for an install on a clean debian 10 Buster installation. It includes a one-liner to install PyBitmessage and all dependencies except for the namecoin stuff because I have no idea what namecoin is. The one liner could easily be turned into a quick bash script, which I plan on doing. I also plan on going though and doing similar tutorials on other debian and ubuntu clean installs. If you and other developers want to look glance over it, check for mistakes, help clean it up (it needs some formatting), and/or help me figure out how to include namecoin in the tutorial, I could add it to the Wiki once it is validated and has efficient/clean code/commands, etc. I'm a novice bash scripter, but so far, the command (and the tutorial) work perfectly on a freshly installed debian KDE on my computer.

[PeterSurda]

@Danrancan Thank you, it looks like at the moment the account creation on Bitmessage wiki is disabled. I need to find a way to let you create an account without enabling the spam bots to register too.