Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-04-26 Thread Goswin von Brederlow
"Freddie Unpenstein" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

>> > I'm wondering, what happens if you want to install MOST of the deps
>> > from source? Wouldn't it be better to have apt-build (using the
>> > "official apt algorithms") ask on a dep-by-dep basis whether you
>> > want it compiled from source or installed from a binary?
>> Which is basically what sourcerer acomplishes in a nice, transparent,
>> round up fashion (upload pending some spare time).
>
> What if I use dselect, aptitude, or any number of other similar packages as 
> my package manager?  Can I select packages to be installed or upgraded?

Aptitude uses apt (through libapt) and dselect can (and should be)
configured to use apt. I think all frontends (can) use apt with the
exception of using dpkg directly.

But the use of apt is only important to automatically track what is
installed and what not. If you don't want that you can manualy tweak
the lists for sourcerer-archive or sourcerer-buildd.

Sourcerer-archive itself build a debian archive and you just point apt
(or other frontend) to use it as additional (or only) source for packages.

> I recognise that I may need to use your package to select packages that 
> should be built from source as opposed to installed from binary packages, but 
> can they be still be upgraded (via source) though my regular package manager?

In my current setup I have sourcerer-watcher follow my apt usage
completly so everything goes automatic. Here is what happens:

1) I  : apt-get install foobar  <- download foobar from debian and install
2) watcher: add foobar to list of sources to carry and build
3) archive: mirror foobar sources
4) buildd : build local foobar
5) I  : apt-get update; apt-get upgrade <- install local build foobar
6) time   : when a new source comes out go back to 3

> My usual pattern is to update and select using dselect, download using a cron 
> job with "apt-get -d dselect-upgrade", followed by installing the following 
> day with "apt-get dselect-upgrade"...  What part of that process would need 
> to change to support your package?

Nothing. In fact to get your current behaviour you would tell the
watcher to add/remove packages from the sourcerer-archive list and
leave sourcerer-buildd alone. And you tell sourcerer-archive to mirror
only debs. Every night the archive then downloads any new
version of installed debs and the next day you can upgrade them
directly.

You don't need to run a buildd for this. That is just one of the
sources for debs.

>
> Fredderic

MfG
Goswin


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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-04-25 Thread Freddie Unpenstein

> > I'm wondering, what happens if you want to install MOST of the deps
> > from source? Wouldn't it be better to have apt-build (using the
> > "official apt algorithms") ask on a dep-by-dep basis whether you
> > want it compiled from source or installed from a binary?
> Which is basically what sourcerer acomplishes in a nice, transparent,
> round up fashion (upload pending some spare time).

What if I use dselect, aptitude, or any number of other similar packages as my 
package manager?  Can I select packages to be installed or upgraded?

I recognise that I may need to use your package to select packages that should 
be built from source as opposed to installed from binary packages, but can they 
be still be upgraded (via source) though my regular package manager?

My usual pattern is to update and select using dselect, download using a cron 
job with "apt-get -d dselect-upgrade", followed by installing the following day 
with "apt-get dselect-upgrade"...  What part of that process would need to 
change to support your package?


Fredderic

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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-04-25 Thread Goswin von Brederlow
"Freddie Unpenstein" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

>> > Your priority are your users, and if Debian has decided to focus
>> > only on some key architectures it would be the best for them to
>> > help them switching to Gentoo instead of hacking Debian to become
>> > some cheap Gentoo clone for most architectures.
>
>> I don't view this as being a cheap Gentoo clone.  In fact, I view
>> srcinst as being the Gentoo idea, done right.  Gentoo has a lot of
>> problems, especially relating to difficult upgrades.  Because of 
>> our superior packaging system, we are in a great position to hit
>> the ground running and, with a little help from something like
>> srcinst, come up with something that works -- and works better than
>> Gentoo -- in a short amount of time.
>
> I'm wondering, what happens if you want to install MOST of the deps from 
> source?  Wouldn't it be better to have apt-build (using the "official apt 
> algorithms") ask on a dep-by-dep basis whether you want it compiled from 
> source or installed from a binary?
>
> Even better, would be to allow apt's preferences file to state whether a 
> specific package should be installed from binary or source, and have the 
> stock "apt-get install" do what's appropriate.  With a few options to set the 
> default mode (binary or source), and to overide the mode for specific 
> packages.  And of course, last but not least, apt should keep the package 
> comming from the same source unless specifically changed.
>
>
> Now, if only apt-get understood that a pacakge may be available from more 
> than one mirror at a time...
>
> Fredderic

Which is basically what sourcerer acomplishes in a nice, transparent,
round up fashion (upload pending some spare time).

sourcerer-archive maintains a local archive of selected sources and
packages from various sources (debian mirrors or incoming
queue). E.g. mirror all installed packages and sources.

sourcerer-watcher watches for apt activity and can update the
selection of sourcerer-archive automatically. On "apt-get install
foobar" foobar gets added to the package list, on purge it gets
removed.

sourcerer-buildd finaly builds selected packages from the archive and
uploads it to the archive again. Local gcc options can be enforced,
e.g. to optimize for i686, and the version is modified bumping the 4th
part of the debian revision (debian only uses 3) to generate a version
higher than this one and lower than any debian upload.


With this and apts pining it is trivial to install and update a system
with only locally build debs or with the prebuild debs as fallback for
the first install or as fallback for anything yet unbuild or build
failures.

This also has one big advantage over apt-get install from source: You
do not have to wait for the compile to finish. The nightly cron job
will start the build and the new debs will be ready for install in the
morning.

MfG
Goswin


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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-04-07 Thread Lionel Elie Mamane
On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 11:25:23AM -0600, John Goerzen wrote:

> I'm throwing out a different idea,

> I propose that we split things along these lines: binary+source (B+S)
> archs and source-only (SO) archs.

> SO archs will be handled exactly like we do now, EXCEPT that we will
> not distribute .debs for most packages.  I expect that we will
> distribute .debs for base and build-essential, mainly -- the minimum
> someone needs to install a working system and build more packages.

>  * Difficulty of dealing with dependency loops
>(possible solution: include one .deb from each loop in the dist)

And for compilers written in their own language :-)

-- 
Lionel


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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-04-06 Thread Freddie Unpenstein

> > Your priority are your users, and if Debian has decided to focus
> > only on some key architectures it would be the best for them to
> > help them switching to Gentoo instead of hacking Debian to become
> > some cheap Gentoo clone for most architectures.

> I don't view this as being a cheap Gentoo clone.  In fact, I view
> srcinst as being the Gentoo idea, done right.  Gentoo has a lot of
> problems, especially relating to difficult upgrades.  Because of 
> our superior packaging system, we are in a great position to hit
> the ground running and, with a little help from something like
> srcinst, come up with something that works -- and works better than
> Gentoo -- in a short amount of time.

I'm wondering, what happens if you want to install MOST of the deps from 
source?  Wouldn't it be better to have apt-build (using the "official apt 
algorithms") ask on a dep-by-dep basis whether you want it compiled from source 
or installed from a binary?

Even better, would be to allow apt's preferences file to state whether a 
specific package should be installed from binary or source, and have the stock 
"apt-get install" do what's appropriate.  With a few options to set the default 
mode (binary or source), and to overide the mode for specific packages.  And of 
course, last but not least, apt should keep the package comming from the same 
source unless specifically changed.


Now, if only apt-get understood that a pacakge may be available from more than 
one mirror at a time...

Fredderic

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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-21 Thread Wouter Verhelst
On Fri, Mar 18, 2005 at 07:39:06PM -0600, Gunnar Wolf wrote:
> Matthias Urlichs dijo [Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 11:14:50PM +0100]:
> > It won't work that well for slower architectures, for the very simple
> > reason that compiling everything would take a long time.
> > 
> > m68k (as the admittedly extreme example) doesn't have ten buildd boxes
> > just because we feel like it. :-)
> 
> Being m68k among the prime candidates for SCC, why shouldn't we ponder
> using emulated autobuilders? We have some quite decent and reliable
> emulators in our archive for some architectures (i.e., basilisk2 for
> m68k [in contrib because of the needed Mac ROMs], hercules for s390),
> and they do work reliably. 

It's bad enough already that the toolchain (which usually does work
reliably) breaks from time to time; having an emulator which might break
in not immediately obvious ways doesn't sound like a particularly
appealing idea to me.

There is no problem whatsoever for us m68k buildd maintainers in
supporting a dozen or so buildd machines -- or more, if required. It
works like a charm.

-- 
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 AIR  --  mud  -- FIRE
soda water |   tequila
 WATER
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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-18 Thread Gunnar Wolf
Matthias Urlichs dijo [Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 11:14:50PM +0100]:
> It won't work that well for slower architectures, for the very simple
> reason that compiling everything would take a long time.
> 
> m68k (as the admittedly extreme example) doesn't have ten buildd boxes
> just because we feel like it. :-)

Being m68k among the prime candidates for SCC, why shouldn't we ponder
using emulated autobuilders? We have some quite decent and reliable
emulators in our archive for some architectures (i.e., basilisk2 for
m68k [in contrib because of the needed Mac ROMs], hercules for s390),
and they do work reliably. 

(BTW: I have had for a couple of months a Mac Quadra 950 sitting in my
house... It seems to work, but I have had no time to set it up :-/ )

Greetings,

-- 
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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-16 Thread Ola Lundqvist
Hello

On Wed, Mar 16, 2005 at 02:30:29PM +0100, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
> Op di, 15-03-2005 te 11:25 -0600, schreef John Goerzen:
> > As I have been reading the discussions about the SCC proposal for
> > etch, it seems that these are the main problems:
> > 
> > 1) Difficulty with, and speed of, buildd systems
> > 
> > 2) Difficulty of syncing testing across all archs given #1
> > 
> > 3) Difficulty getting security releases out in time, given slow archs
> > 
> > 4) Space constraints on mirrors
> > 
> > I'm throwing out a different idea, and I'm backing it up with code.  I
> > have thought about it some, maybe there are huge holes, but let's see.
> > 
> > I propose that we split things along these lines: binary+source (B+S)
> > archs and source-only (SO) archs.
> [...long detailed explanation of how this would work in practice
> snipped...]
> 
> I don't think this is a good idea. One of Debian's key selling points is
> the fact that you /don't/ have to wait for something to build before
> being able to use it. We're not Gentoo[1]; many of our users come to
> Debian because they want a community-developed, binary-based
> distribution.
> 
> Changing that would change what Debian is, too much.
> 
> Also it wouldn't help on slower architectures. People usually decline
> installing NetBSD on m68k (even if that's possible) when it takes two
> weeks to make the system useful, simply because everything needs to be
> compiled manually.

This is a really a good point. I agree that provide source packages are not
really working on slower arches.

Regards,

// Ola

> [1] this is not meant pejoratively; I'm have tried Gentoo in the past
> and am quite sure it's a great distribution, but it has different goals.
> 
> -- 
>  EARTH
>  smog  |   bricks
>  AIR  --  mud  -- FIRE
> soda water |   tequila
>  WATER
>  -- with thanks to fortune
> 
> 
> -- 
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> 

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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-16 Thread Ola Lundqvist
Hello

On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 04:10:17PM -0600, John Goerzen wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 10:45:45PM +0100, Ola Lundqvist wrote:
> > Hello
> > 
> > > distribute for a SO arch).  Anything past that is there just for QA
> > > purposes -- to make sure packages are buildable on these archs, and
> > > would be optional.
> > 
> > This is the problem. How do you make sure that the package is buildable
> > on the architecture without building it? And if you have built it why not
> 
> Well, how do you make sure that the package is runnable on the
> architecture without running it?

You have a point here.

> Yes, it's a bit less testing, but OTOH, if nobody notices that the
> package can't be installed, that says something.

:)

> > > The problem of syncing with testing is also reduced; now we need only
> > > make sure base is synced across archs.
> > 
> > What you really are saying that for some arches we only support base
> > and essential (and some more). Everything else is provided as source debs
> > and not supported, even if it might work. I mean the source is available
> > currently and the only thing you say is that we should only build some
> > parts of that port.
> 
> No, I'm not commenting on suport.  I'm just commenting on what .debs are
> out there and autobuilt.  I want everything else to stay the same.
> 
> However, the job of supporting n archs for things like security updates
> is reduced to the job of supporting 1 source package.

True.

> > >  * Difficulty of dealing with dependency loops
> > >(possible solution: include one .deb from each loop in the dist)
> > >  
> > >  * Disk space requirements to build packages
> > 
> >  * Not possible to tell if a package is buildable on a specific arch or not.
>  ^ in advance
> 
> Yes, that is a downside.
> 
> > > So, what do you think?  Could this work?
> > 
> > Nice idea, but I do not really see the benefit, more than on ftp disk space
> > and security update speed.
> 
> Also with the testing synchronization.  But then, these three are the
> main problems we've been told about, right? :-)

I see that we can have a more flexible approach for releases.

Full support (i386, etc):
  all packages are supported (debs, security updates etc).
Basic support (some other arches):
  installer, base and essential pacakges built, maybe with some more
  things. The rest is up to the user to compile, maybe using something
  similar that you have here.
No support (sh, hurd...):
  Well some things may work but that is nothing that Debian guarantees. :)

This is just what comes to mind. I'm not saying we should do this, and
not even that I want it to. It was just an idea, and very similar to yours.

Regards,

// Ola

> -- John
> 
> 
> -- 
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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-16 Thread Adrian Bunk
On Wed, Mar 16, 2005 at 02:30:29PM +0100, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
>...
> Also it wouldn't help on slower architectures. People usually decline
> installing NetBSD on m68k (even if that's possible) when it takes two
> weeks to make the system useful, simply because everything needs to be
> compiled manually.
>...

NetBSD also offers binary packages for many years.

cu
Adrian

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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-16 Thread Wouter Verhelst
Op di, 15-03-2005 te 11:25 -0600, schreef John Goerzen:
> As I have been reading the discussions about the SCC proposal for
> etch, it seems that these are the main problems:
> 
> 1) Difficulty with, and speed of, buildd systems
> 
> 2) Difficulty of syncing testing across all archs given #1
> 
> 3) Difficulty getting security releases out in time, given slow archs
> 
> 4) Space constraints on mirrors
> 
> I'm throwing out a different idea, and I'm backing it up with code.  I
> have thought about it some, maybe there are huge holes, but let's see.
> 
> I propose that we split things along these lines: binary+source (B+S)
> archs and source-only (SO) archs.
[...long detailed explanation of how this would work in practice
snipped...]

I don't think this is a good idea. One of Debian's key selling points is
the fact that you /don't/ have to wait for something to build before
being able to use it. We're not Gentoo[1]; many of our users come to
Debian because they want a community-developed, binary-based
distribution.

Changing that would change what Debian is, too much.

Also it wouldn't help on slower architectures. People usually decline
installing NetBSD on m68k (even if that's possible) when it takes two
weeks to make the system useful, simply because everything needs to be
compiled manually.

[1] this is not meant pejoratively; I'm have tried Gentoo in the past
and am quite sure it's a great distribution, but it has different goals.

-- 
 EARTH
 smog  |   bricks
 AIR  --  mud  -- FIRE
soda water |   tequila
 WATER
 -- with thanks to fortune


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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-15 Thread Uwe A. P. Wuerdinger
Mark Brown schrieb:
On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 11:01:06PM +0100, Adrian Bunk wrote:

On some mirrors?
-> Not all mirrors have to mirror all ports.

The mirroring part of the proposal is effectively just a proposal to
rearrange the archive in order to make this easy for mirror admins.
[-snip-]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]:/root/scripts$ cat anonftpsync
#! /bin/sh
set -e
# This script originates from http://www.debian.org/mirror/anonftpsync
# Note: You MUST have rsync 2.0.16-1 or newer, which is available in slink
# and all newer Debian releases, or at http://rsync.samba.org/
# Set the variables below to fit your site. You can then use cron to have
# this script run daily to automatically update your copy of the archive.
# Don't forget:
# chmod 744 anonftpsync
# TO is the destination for the base of the Debian mirror directory
# (the dir that holds dists/ and ls-lR).
TO=/home/mirrors/debian
# RSYNC_HOST is the site you have chosen from the mirrors file.
# (http://www.debian.org/mirror/mirrors_full)
RSYNC_HOST=mastermirror.stayout.int
# RSYNC_DIR is the directory given in the "Packages over rsync:" line of
# the mirrors file for the site you have chosen to mirror.
RSYNC_DIR=debian/
# EXCLUDE is a list of parameters listing patterns that rsync will exclude.
# With a blank EXCLUDE you will mirror the entire archive.
EXCLUDE="\
  --exclude binary-alpha --exclude binary-arm \
  --exclude binary-m68k \
  --exclude binary-ia64 --exclude binary-mips* --exclude binary-hppa 
--exclude binary-sh \
  --exclude *_hurd-i386.deb --exclude *_mipsel.deb \
  --exclude *_s390.deb \
  --exclude *_alpha.deb --exclude *_arm.deb \
  --exclude *_m68k.deb \
  --exclude *_ia64.deb --exclude *_hppa.deb --exclude *_mips.deb 
--exclude *_sh.deb \
  --exclude slink --exclude slink-proposed-updates \
"

# There should be no need to edit anything below this point, unless
[-snip-]
Were's the problem?
greets Uwe
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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-15 Thread John Goerzen
On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 11:14:50PM +0100, Matthias Urlichs wrote:
> Hi, John Goerzen wrote:
> 
> >  This specific proposal, for instance, is meant to
> > provide us with a way forward that addresses the main concerns while
> > still producing a quality, usable result for our users.
> 
> It won't work that well for slower architectures, for the very simple
> reason that compiling everything would take a long time.

It may be that m68k is one arch that should ship with .debs, for this
very reason.

-- John


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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-15 Thread Matthias Urlichs
Hi, John Goerzen wrote:

>  This specific proposal, for instance, is meant to
> provide us with a way forward that addresses the main concerns while
> still producing a quality, usable result for our users.

It won't work that well for slower architectures, for the very simple
reason that compiling everything would take a long time.

m68k (as the admittedly extreme example) doesn't have ten buildd boxes
just because we feel like it. :-)

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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-15 Thread Mark Brown
On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 11:01:06PM +0100, Adrian Bunk wrote:

> On some mirrors?
> -> Not all mirrors have to mirror all ports.

The mirroring part of the proposal is effectively just a proposal to
rearrange the archive in order to make this easy for mirror admins.

-- 
"You grabbed my hand and we fell into it, like a daydream - or a fever."


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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-15 Thread John Goerzen
On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 10:45:45PM +0100, Ola Lundqvist wrote:
> Hello
> 
> > distribute for a SO arch).  Anything past that is there just for QA
> > purposes -- to make sure packages are buildable on these archs, and
> > would be optional.
> 
> This is the problem. How do you make sure that the package is buildable
> on the architecture without building it? And if you have built it why not

Well, how do you make sure that the package is runnable on the
architecture without running it?

Yes, it's a bit less testing, but OTOH, if nobody notices that the
package can't be installed, that says something.

> > The problem of syncing with testing is also reduced; now we need only
> > make sure base is synced across archs.
> 
> What you really are saying that for some arches we only support base
> and essential (and some more). Everything else is provided as source debs
> and not supported, even if it might work. I mean the source is available
> currently and the only thing you say is that we should only build some
> parts of that port.

No, I'm not commenting on suport.  I'm just commenting on what .debs are
out there and autobuilt.  I want everything else to stay the same.

However, the job of supporting n archs for things like security updates
is reduced to the job of supporting 1 source package.

> >  * Difficulty of dealing with dependency loops
> >(possible solution: include one .deb from each loop in the dist)
> >  
> >  * Disk space requirements to build packages
> 
>  * Not possible to tell if a package is buildable on a specific arch or not.
 ^ in advance

Yes, that is a downside.

> > So, what do you think?  Could this work?
> 
> Nice idea, but I do not really see the benefit, more than on ftp disk space
> and security update speed.

Also with the testing synchronization.  But then, these three are the
main problems we've been told about, right? :-)

-- John


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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-15 Thread Marc Singer
On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 10:45:45PM +0100, Ola Lundqvist wrote:
> > The speed of buildd systems mostly becomes irrelevant.  They will
> > still have to keep up with base (the set of .debs that we do
> > distribute for a SO arch).  Anything past that is there just for QA
> > purposes -- to make sure packages are buildable on these archs, and
> > would be optional.
> 
> This is the problem. How do you make sure that the package is buildable
> on the architecture without building it? And if you have built it why not
> just add it to the archives. :) So you still need a buildd. :(

Not necessarily.  I think if we make it easy for end users to perform
selective builds we have a chance of making it work.

> > So, what do you think?  Could this work?
> 
> Nice idea, but I do not really see the benefit, more than on ftp disk space
> and security update speed.

While I would like to *not* see a change to the build structure, I
agree that removing lesser used arch's from the testing & guaranteed
support infrastructure gives room for higher frequency releases.
IMHO, the disk space issue is a red herring.  Security updates, too,
are not the primary concern, it's getting all of the cats out the door
with some frequency.


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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-15 Thread Adrian Bunk
On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 04:55:08PM -0500, Alec Berryman wrote:
> Ola Lundqvist on 2005-03-15 22:45:45 +0100:
> 
> > This is the problem. How do you make sure that the package is
> > buildable on the architecture without building it? And if you have
> > built it why not just add it to the archives. :) So you still need a
> > buildd. :(
> 
> Why not add it to the archives?  Because there isn't enough disk space.

Where exactly isn't enough space?

On Debian servers?
-> There'd be enough money for new disks or even new servers.

On some mirrors?
-> Not all mirrors have to mirror all ports.

cu
Adrian

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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-15 Thread Alec Berryman
Ola Lundqvist on 2005-03-15 22:45:45 +0100:

> This is the problem. How do you make sure that the package is
> buildable on the architecture without building it? And if you have
> built it why not just add it to the archives. :) So you still need a
> buildd. :(

Why not add it to the archives?  Because there isn't enough disk space.



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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-15 Thread Ola Lundqvist
Hello

On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 11:25:23AM -0600, John Goerzen wrote:
> As I have been reading the discussions about the SCC proposal for
> etch, it seems that these are the main problems:
> 
> 1) Difficulty with, and speed of, buildd systems
> 
> 2) Difficulty of syncing testing across all archs given #1
> 
> 3) Difficulty getting security releases out in time, given slow archs
> 
> 4) Space constraints on mirrors
> 
> I'm throwing out a different idea, and I'm backing it up with code.  I
> have thought about it some, maybe there are huge holes, but let's see.
> 
> I propose that we split things along these lines: binary+source (B+S)
> archs and source-only (SO) archs.

As you probably know it has been expressed before.

> B+S archs will be essentially like we have now -- .debs and sources
> for every package in Debian are available.
> 
> SO archs will be handled exactly like we do now, EXCEPT that we will
> not distribute .debs for most packages.  I expect that we will
> distribute .debs for base and build-essential, mainly -- the minimum
> someone needs to install a working system and build more packages.

Might be a good alternative, but see below.

> What will that mean for our problems?
> 
> The speed of buildd systems mostly becomes irrelevant.  They will
> still have to keep up with base (the set of .debs that we do
> distribute for a SO arch).  Anything past that is there just for QA
> purposes -- to make sure packages are buildable on these archs, and
> would be optional.

This is the problem. How do you make sure that the package is buildable
on the architecture without building it? And if you have built it why not
just add it to the archives. :) So you still need a buildd. :(

> The problem of syncing with testing is also reduced; now we need only
> make sure base is synced across archs.

What you really are saying that for some arches we only support base
and essential (and some more). Everything else is provided as source debs
and not supported, even if it might work. I mean the source is available
currently and the only thing you say is that we should only build some
parts of that port.

> The problem of getting security releases out in time is also reduced;
> source packages are enough for these archs.  If there's a hole in a
> base package, we'd want to provide .debs for everyone, but these
> packages aren't going to be the KDE-style mammoth ones.

This will help yes.

> And finally, this would be a huge win for mirrors.  We would have far
> fewer space constraints, and adding a new arch would be easier.
> 
> What would this mean for users?
> 
> Basically, packages install slower on these archs.  I have developed a
> demonstration tool called srcinst, available from
> http://people.debian.org/~jgoerzen/srcinst/.  srcinst is capable of
> filling all of a package's dependencies and build-depencies solely
> from source.  It will use apt-get -b source to build .debs, then
> evaluate (and build, if necessary) their deps, then install them with
> dpkg -i.  In short, very similar to apt-get install, except it never
> downloads a .deb from anywhere for any reason.  (Most other tools
> don't go this far, and still require .deb downloads for build-deps, or
> don't handle deps at all)

Nice.

> This gives us the benefits of smaller mirror infrastructure that
> projects like Gentoo have, while still maintaining all the advantages
> of dpkg/apt.
> 
> What are some downsides?
> 
> I can see a few:
> 
>  * Longer package install times, obviously
> 
>  * Difficulty of dealing with dependency loops
>(possible solution: include one .deb from each loop in the dist)
>  
>  * Disk space requirements to build packages

 * Not possible to tell if a package is buildable on a specific arch or not.

> More on srcinst:
> 
> Here's an example for epic4, which looks like this:
> 
> Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.2.ds1-4), libncurses5 (>= 5.4-1), libssl0.9.7,
> epic4-help (>= 1:1.1.7.20020907)
> Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 3.4.8), libncurses5-dev, libssl-dev
> 
> Let's assume I have libssl-dev installed and libc6 installed, but no
> ncurses5.
> 
> So, I run "srcinst install epic4".  Here's what it does:
> 
> 1. Looks at the build-depends, sees that we are missing
>libncurses5-dev.  So:
>a. Grab and build the source package corresponding to
>   libncurses5-dev.
>b. Examine the deps in libncurses5-dev.deb.  Notice that it deps
>   on libncurses5 (which we just built), so dkpg -i libncurses5
>   and then dpkg -i libncurses5-dev.
> 2. Build epic4 itself.
> 3. Look at the deps in the epic4 .deb.  Notice that it deps on
>epic4-help.
> 4. Build and install epic4-help.
> 5. Install epic4.
> 
> The srcinst code is very hackish, ugly, and quick.  I just wrote it
> since yesterday as a proof of concept.  So:
> 
>  * Make sure yuo rnu it as root (no support for fakeroot/sudo yet)
> 
>  * It can't resolve dep loops
> 
>  * It can't handle !arch strings in deps accurately
> 
>  * It spews debugging info to st

Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-15 Thread John Goerzen
On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 12:53:31PM -0800, Marc Singer wrote:
> > Yes, but I hope that this proposal, or other suggestions, can help us
> > avoid dropping ports.  This specific proposal, for instance, is meant to
> > provide us with a way forward that addresses the main concerns while
> > still producing a quality, usable result for our users.
> 
> ...and may encourage development of new architectures as the overhead
> for each would be much smaller.

Exactly.  If we were doing this, there would have been no reason to keep
amd64 out of sarge, for instance.

-- John


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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-15 Thread Marc Singer
On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 02:24:01PM -0600, John Goerzen wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 07:46:23PM +0100, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> > > don't handle deps at all)
> > >...
> > > So, what do you think?  Could this work?
> > 
> > Yes, this could work.
> > That's what Gentoo is good at.
> 
> [ snip ]
> 
> > Your priority are your users, and if Debian has decided to focus only on 
> > some key architectures it would be the best for them to help them 
> > switching to Gentoo instead of hacking Debian to become some cheap 
> > Gentoo clone for most architectures.
> 
> I don't view this as being a cheap Gentoo clone.  In fact, I view
> srcinst as being the Gentoo idea, done right.  Gentoo has a lot of
> problems, especially relating to difficult upgrades.  Because of our
> superior packaging system, we are in a great position to hit the ground
> running and, with a little help from something like srcinst, come up
> with something that works -- and works better than Gentoo -- in a short
> amount of time.
> 
> > If the Debian developers intereested in the ports Debian intends to drop 
> > would switch to Gentoo for helping Gentoo to support all of their 
> > architectures and for providing easy Debian -> Gentoo transition paths 
> > this would serve your users better.
> 
> Yes, but I hope that this proposal, or other suggestions, can help us
> avoid dropping ports.  This specific proposal, for instance, is meant to
> provide us with a way forward that addresses the main concerns while
> still producing a quality, usable result for our users.

...and may encourage development of new architectures as the overhead
for each would be much smaller.


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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-15 Thread John Goerzen
On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 07:46:23PM +0100, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> > don't handle deps at all)
> >...
> > So, what do you think?  Could this work?
> 
> Yes, this could work.
> That's what Gentoo is good at.

[ snip ]

> Your priority are your users, and if Debian has decided to focus only on 
> some key architectures it would be the best for them to help them 
> switching to Gentoo instead of hacking Debian to become some cheap 
> Gentoo clone for most architectures.

I don't view this as being a cheap Gentoo clone.  In fact, I view
srcinst as being the Gentoo idea, done right.  Gentoo has a lot of
problems, especially relating to difficult upgrades.  Because of our
superior packaging system, we are in a great position to hit the ground
running and, with a little help from something like srcinst, come up
with something that works -- and works better than Gentoo -- in a short
amount of time.

> If the Debian developers intereested in the ports Debian intends to drop 
> would switch to Gentoo for helping Gentoo to support all of their 
> architectures and for providing easy Debian -> Gentoo transition paths 
> this would serve your users better.

Yes, but I hope that this proposal, or other suggestions, can help us
avoid dropping ports.  This specific proposal, for instance, is meant to
provide us with a way forward that addresses the main concerns while
still producing a quality, usable result for our users.

-- John


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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-15 Thread John Goerzen
On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 06:57:00PM +0100, Matthias Urlichs wrote:
> Hi, John Goerzen wrote:
> 
> > 1) Difficulty with, and speed of, buildd systems
> > 
> > 2) Difficulty of syncing testing across all archs given #1
> 
> 2a) Bugs on "small" arch which blocks testing migration of "big" arch
> 
> There are not many people who can do in-depth debugging on most small
> architectures, arch-specific gcc internals are less-well exercised and
> therefore more buggy, just recompiling gcc is a problem ...

Granted, gcc and libc can cause an inordinate amount of trouble there.
But in almost every other case, a bug in a "small" arch is a genuine bug
in the program that should be fixed, and usually is not exceptionally
hard to find.

-- John


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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-15 Thread Adrian Bunk
On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 11:25:23AM -0600, John Goerzen wrote:
>...
> SO archs will be handled exactly like we do now, EXCEPT that we will
> not distribute .debs for most packages.  I expect that we will
> distribute .debs for base and build-essential, mainly -- the minimum
> someone needs to install a working system and build more packages.
>...
> What would this mean for users?
> 
> Basically, packages install slower on these archs.  I have developed a
> demonstration tool called srcinst, available from
> http://people.debian.org/~jgoerzen/srcinst/.  srcinst is capable of
> filling all of a package's dependencies and build-depencies solely
> from source.  It will use apt-get -b source to build .debs, then
> evaluate (and build, if necessary) their deps, then install them with
> dpkg -i.  In short, very similar to apt-get install, except it never
> downloads a .deb from anywhere for any reason.  (Most other tools
> don't go this far, and still require .deb downloads for build-deps, or
> don't handle deps at all)
>...
> So, what do you think?  Could this work?

Yes, this could work.
That's what Gentoo is good at.

Both source-only distributions like Gentoo and binary distributions like 
Debian are possible - and both have their advantages and disadvantages.

I'd hate so see Debian drop most of it's architectures, and as I already 
expressed I think it's neither required for release management reasons 
nor for ftp space reasons.

Your priority are your users, and if Debian has decided to focus only on 
some key architectures it would be the best for them to help them 
switching to Gentoo instead of hacking Debian to become some cheap 
Gentoo clone for most architectures.

If the Debian developers intereested in the ports Debian intends to drop 
would switch to Gentoo for helping Gentoo to support all of their 
architectures and for providing easy Debian -> Gentoo transition paths 
this would serve your users better.

> -- John

cu
Adrian

-- 

   "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
   "Only a promise," Lao Er said.
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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-15 Thread John Goerzen
On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 06:42:32PM +0100, Lech Karol Paw?aszek wrote:
> On Tuesday 15 of March 2005 18:25, John Goerzen wrote:
> [...]
> > More on srcinst:
> [...]
> > So, what do you think?  Could this work?
> 
> What's a difference between srcinst and apt-build ? ;-)

egrep 'apt-get.*install' apt-build | wc -l
8
egrep -r 'apt-get.*install' srcinst | wc -l
0

IOW, apt-build still requires pre-built binary .debs in order to work.

srcinst does not.

-- John


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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-15 Thread Matthias Urlichs
Hi, John Goerzen wrote:

> 1) Difficulty with, and speed of, buildd systems
> 
> 2) Difficulty of syncing testing across all archs given #1

2a) Bugs on "small" arch which blocks testing migration of "big" arch

There are not many people who can do in-depth debugging on most small
architectures, arch-specific gcc internals are less-well exercised and
therefore more buggy, just recompiling gcc is a problem ...

-- 
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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-15 Thread Marc Singer
On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 12:42:54PM -0500, Stephen Frost wrote:
> - Mirror only the popular archs.
> - Support buildds for stable-enough archs that run them.
> - Try to include everything in a release, but drop archs more 
>   quickly than has been done in the past if there's a lack of 
>   resources, but do outline what people need to do if they want the 
>   arch included.
> - For archs that weren't able to make the cut, provide .debs for the
>   packages which don't have RC bugs.  Don't provide .debs for the
>   packages which have RC bugs on that architecture.  Attempt to include
>   the archs in security updates, but if it's not built fast enough or
>   whatever then drop the .deb for that package and provide the source
>   update.  A fixed .deb can be done later by whomever.
> 
> I dunno, just some thoughts.  I don't like becoming a mostly source-only
> distro for less common archs.  If someone wants to build the debs and
> upload them, let them.

This sounds like the idea already going around of, essentially, 'build
what we can'. 

I'm suggesting that we go a step further and enable a new segment of
the user base.  The turnkey people use x86 (+relatives) and PPC.  The
people on other arches can either step-up to provide resources to
Debian, or they can build what they need.

Of course, I'd rather not cut the support.  But John draws, IMHO, a
reasonable line in the sand.


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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-15 Thread Lech Karol Pawłaszek
On Tuesday 15 of March 2005 18:25, John Goerzen wrote:
[...]
> More on srcinst:
[...]
> So, what do you think?  Could this work?

What's a difference between srcinst and apt-build ? ;-)

Regards.

-- 
Lech Karol Pawłaszek 
"You will never see me fall from grace..." [KoRn]



Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-15 Thread Stephen Frost
* Marc Singer ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 11:25:23AM -0600, John Goerzen wrote:
> > So, what do you think?  Could this work?
> 
> I like the idea a lot.  What I'd like to see is a way to do a
> cross-platform build for the small system targets.  I do a lot of ARM
> work: low-performance, resource limited targets.
> 
> Frankly, this is something I'm actively working on.  I agree that the
> Debian infrastructure shouldn't be required to do all of the building.
> It would be helpful, though, if there was support for other arch's to
> be built efficiently by the users of those arches.

I'm not particularly fond of the idea actually, mostly because of the
strain it'd put on our users.  An alternative:

- Mirror only the popular archs.
- Support buildds for stable-enough archs that run them.
- Try to include everything in a release, but drop archs more 
  quickly than has been done in the past if there's a lack of 
  resources, but do outline what people need to do if they want the 
  arch included.
- For archs that weren't able to make the cut, provide .debs for the
  packages which don't have RC bugs.  Don't provide .debs for the
  packages which have RC bugs on that architecture.  Attempt to include
  the archs in security updates, but if it's not built fast enough or
  whatever then drop the .deb for that package and provide the source
  update.  A fixed .deb can be done later by whomever.

I dunno, just some thoughts.  I don't like becoming a mostly source-only
distro for less common archs.  If someone wants to build the debs and
upload them, let them.

Stephen


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Re: Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-15 Thread Marc Singer
On Tue, Mar 15, 2005 at 11:25:23AM -0600, John Goerzen wrote:
> So, what do you think?  Could this work?

I like the idea a lot.  What I'd like to see is a way to do a
cross-platform build for the small system targets.  I do a lot of ARM
work: low-performance, resource limited targets.

Frankly, this is something I'm actively working on.  I agree that the
Debian infrastructure shouldn't be required to do all of the building.
It would be helpful, though, if there was support for other arch's to
be built efficiently by the users of those arches.



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Alternative: Source-Centric Approach [w/code]

2005-03-15 Thread John Goerzen
As I have been reading the discussions about the SCC proposal for
etch, it seems that these are the main problems:

1) Difficulty with, and speed of, buildd systems

2) Difficulty of syncing testing across all archs given #1

3) Difficulty getting security releases out in time, given slow archs

4) Space constraints on mirrors

I'm throwing out a different idea, and I'm backing it up with code.  I
have thought about it some, maybe there are huge holes, but let's see.

I propose that we split things along these lines: binary+source (B+S)
archs and source-only (SO) archs.

B+S archs will be essentially like we have now -- .debs and sources
for every package in Debian are available.

SO archs will be handled exactly like we do now, EXCEPT that we will
not distribute .debs for most packages.  I expect that we will
distribute .debs for base and build-essential, mainly -- the minimum
someone needs to install a working system and build more packages.

What will that mean for our problems?

The speed of buildd systems mostly becomes irrelevant.  They will
still have to keep up with base (the set of .debs that we do
distribute for a SO arch).  Anything past that is there just for QA
purposes -- to make sure packages are buildable on these archs, and
would be optional.

The problem of syncing with testing is also reduced; now we need only
make sure base is synced across archs.

The problem of getting security releases out in time is also reduced;
source packages are enough for these archs.  If there's a hole in a
base package, we'd want to provide .debs for everyone, but these
packages aren't going to be the KDE-style mammoth ones.

And finally, this would be a huge win for mirrors.  We would have far
fewer space constraints, and adding a new arch would be easier.

What would this mean for users?

Basically, packages install slower on these archs.  I have developed a
demonstration tool called srcinst, available from
http://people.debian.org/~jgoerzen/srcinst/.  srcinst is capable of
filling all of a package's dependencies and build-depencies solely
from source.  It will use apt-get -b source to build .debs, then
evaluate (and build, if necessary) their deps, then install them with
dpkg -i.  In short, very similar to apt-get install, except it never
downloads a .deb from anywhere for any reason.  (Most other tools
don't go this far, and still require .deb downloads for build-deps, or
don't handle deps at all)

This gives us the benefits of smaller mirror infrastructure that
projects like Gentoo have, while still maintaining all the advantages
of dpkg/apt.

What are some downsides?

I can see a few:

 * Longer package install times, obviously

 * Difficulty of dealing with dependency loops
   (possible solution: include one .deb from each loop in the dist)
 
 * Disk space requirements to build packages

More on srcinst:

Here's an example for epic4, which looks like this:

Depends: libc6 (>= 2.3.2.ds1-4), libncurses5 (>= 5.4-1), libssl0.9.7,
epic4-help (>= 1:1.1.7.20020907)
Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 3.4.8), libncurses5-dev, libssl-dev

Let's assume I have libssl-dev installed and libc6 installed, but no
ncurses5.

So, I run "srcinst install epic4".  Here's what it does:

1. Looks at the build-depends, sees that we are missing
   libncurses5-dev.  So:
   a. Grab and build the source package corresponding to
  libncurses5-dev.
   b. Examine the deps in libncurses5-dev.deb.  Notice that it deps
  on libncurses5 (which we just built), so dkpg -i libncurses5
  and then dpkg -i libncurses5-dev.
2. Build epic4 itself.
3. Look at the deps in the epic4 .deb.  Notice that it deps on
   epic4-help.
4. Build and install epic4-help.
5. Install epic4.

The srcinst code is very hackish, ugly, and quick.  I just wrote it
since yesterday as a proof of concept.  So:

 * Make sure yuo rnu it as root (no support for fakeroot/sudo yet)

 * It can't resolve dep loops

 * It can't handle !arch strings in deps accurately

 * It spews debugging info to stdout

 * It uses /var/cache/srcinst for its working area.  Make sure /var is
   free enough.

So, what do you think?  Could this work?

-- John


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