Just a little input from a humble user of Karaf... Karaf is not only used by other "projects" like ServiceMix and Geronimo. It is also used by end users like me. For me, Karaf is a deployment container I use to implement my products. I find it very hard to customize a Karaf server for the purposes of my product. I've created a couple of JIRA's regarding this already (which I think has been postphoned to Karaf 3.1).
The way you describe KAR files sounds excellent to me. I could start with a fresh Karaf installation and then install a KAR file which will upgrade Karaf to become a container for my product. It would include all the necessary bundles as well as all the customization of Karaf needed. A dream come true. I realize that when adding configuration settings via a KAR file, there might be conflicts. Don't let this stop you from implementing this feature. A lot of use cases (like mine) would not have more than one KAR containing configuration settings anyway. Let's start by making that work and then (in the next release) make it possible to handle potentially conflicting configuration settings. Please don't target all efforts towards pleasing ServiceMix and Geronimo (although I do of course realize that is very important). Not every user of Karaf is a whole project with resources to customize Karaf (and do it again for every new release of Karaf...). /Bengt 2011/7/12 Andreas Pieber <[email protected]> > On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 8:33 AM, Charles Moulliard <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Hi, > > > > If we can with Karaf 3.x proposes a mechanism to upgrade platform from > > karaf 3.x to 3.y easily, that would be awesome and great. We are OSGI > > compliant but we don't use it internally to "patch/deploy hotfix" the > > platform. > > +1; I'm completely with your here! > > > This is a pitch. We do not need something very complex but a > > process which will deploy new jars files for the core and update > > config files. Then the question will be can we update config files > > when users modify them .... > > Yeah, but to point out the core again: Look at the Apache SMX project > for example. There are a lot of modifications to Karaf and the config > files to make everything together nicely. Think about out target here: > The SMX assembly file should look something like (without the entire > mvn syntax by now): > > karaf-maven-plugin > assembe > cxf kar (as is from cxf project) > amq kar (as is from amq) > smx kar (as is from smx) > > Full stop; nothing else required *DREAMING* :) > > Kind regards, > Andreas > > > > > Just 2 cents > > > > Regards, > > > > Charles Moulliard > > > > Apache Committer > > > > Blog : http://cmoulliard.blogspot.com > > Twitter : http://twitter.com/cmoulliard > > Linkedin : http://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesmoulliard > > Skype: cmoulliard > > > > > > > > On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 8:23 AM, Andreas Pieber <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> Hey David, > >> > >> On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 8:12 AM, David Jencks <[email protected]> > wrote: > >>> You can include replacement jre.properties and other properties files > in a kar that will overwrite the existing ones. In any case you have to > restart the server to pick up the new files. > >>> > >>> However obviously you can only do this with one kar file before they > interfere. > >> > >> Yeah, exactly this is problem :( > >> > >>> Has anyone suggested a practical way to deal with this? > >> > >> Maybe provide "extension points" in the configuration files? Maybe > >> someone else has a more "ground-shaking suggestion"? :) But my guts > >> say that this will be a VERY valuable feature for Karaf since it may > >> be possible then to start an empty Karaf and simply "upgrade" it to > >> SMX, or Geronimo or any parts of both you may like to have without > >> ever toughing a text-editor and all those hassels about jre exports > >> and bot delegation :( > >> > >> Thanks and kind regards, > >> Andreas > >> > >>> > >>> thanks! > >>> david jencks > >>> > >>>> > >>>> Kind regards, > >>>> Andreas > >>>> > >>>> On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 12:05 AM, David Jencks < > [email protected]> wrote: > >>>>> > >>>>> On Jul 11, 2011, at 5:26 AM, Andreas Pieber wrote: > >>>>> <big snip> > >>>>> > >>>>>> * Karaf profiles & Kar files (IMHO this is one of the most important > >>>>>> features for 3.x and not present in the issues by now; there had > been > >>>>>> considerable work on this by David, but still, we're missing a > >>>>>> possibility to start e.g. CXF without modifying some files in etc) > >>>>> > >>>>> I'm really hoping that 3.0.0 will have the minimal and standard > assemblies created using kars/features rather than the old style > maven-assembly-plugin. I haven't been able to work on this for a while but > i thought I left it in a state as least as functional as the old-style > servers. The only bit I recall as missing is the legal files. > >>>>> > >>>>> What are you looking for to start e.g. cxf? IIRC you can assemble a > server including a cxf feature as a boot feature, or add it in later as a > regular feature.... > >>>>> > >>>>> thanks > >>>>> david jencks > >>>>> > >>>>> > >>> > >>> > >> > > >
