Re: [Server-devel] XS-rsync: automatic .contents creation

2009-05-26 Thread Martin Langhoff
On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 5:12 PM, Daniel Drake  wrote:
> If the XS shipped olpc-contents
> (http://xs-dev.laptop.org/~cscott/repos/joyride/olpc-contents-2.5-1.i386.rpm)
> then it would be easy to make XS-rsync be able to generate the
> .contents file automatically from the .tar.bz2 tree file.
>
> Is it possible to include that RPM, and would such patches be considered?
> It would simplify updates that have been built with lightweight tools
> such as image-builder.

I dropped off this conversation earlier in the year. In any case,
olpc-contents will be in 0.6 :-)

cheers,



m
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 mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect
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Re: [Server-devel] XS-rsync: automatic .contents creation

2009-02-24 Thread Chris Ball
Hi,

   > The xs-upserv script knows how to create a contents file given an
   > exploded directory tree -- is that what you're looking for?

Sorry, I missed the first message in the thread.  So, you can't use
xs-upserv (or port that feature to xs-rsync) because you don't have
olpc-contents-create, since it's in the unshipped olpc-contents RPM.
Including olpc-contents on the XS sounds very sensible, then.

- Chris.
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Re: [Server-devel] XS-rsync: automatic .contents creation

2009-02-24 Thread Chris Ball
Hi Dan,

   > As Ties pointed out, it's related to .toc contents files (which
   > XS-rsync calls .contents) and not content bundles.

The xs-upserv script knows how to create a contents file given an
exploded directory tree -- is that what you're looking for?

http://dev.laptop.org/git?p=users/cjb/xs-rsync;a=summary

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Re: [Server-devel] XS-rsync: automatic .contents creation

2009-02-24 Thread Martin Langhoff
On Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 2:48 AM, Daniel Drake  wrote:
> 2009/2/23 Martin Langhoff :
>> Can you flesh out the use cases a bit more?
>
> As Ties pointed out, it's related to .toc contents files (which
> XS-rsync calls .contents) and not content bundles.

Colour me confused. What's the use case where the XS builds a special
local image?

The use case for xs-rsync serving content for olpc-update is for OS
upgrades, which are generated in various formats by the team that
manages the XS/XO infra at a central location, tested, some of the
formats are signed (for NAND-flash updates), and so on and so forth.

The XS generating its own images _locally_ is not something I
considered. It sounds risky - serving a botched image will... botch
XOs!.. that's why the "unpack the tar" part of the xs-rsync scripts is
so anally paranoid.

Sorry to sound repetitive... what's the use case?

> In future, we would like to use the same tool to build an image
> suitable for the XS to distribute using XS-rsync. 2 changes are needed
> to the image builder process for this to happen:
>  1. it should optionally output a tarball (in addition to, or instead
> of a jffs2 image). trivial modification to the script.
>  2. we need a .contents file, because XS-rsync requires that
>
> Right now, image builder is a nice standalone script without any
> painful dependencies, but generating the .contents file for (2) is a
> bit tricky. It would require installation of olpc-contents on the
> local system, which really means packaging for various distributions
> etc. It would be nicer if the server could create the .contents file
> for itself, which would not be hard. It even seems to unpack the
> tarball already for other reasons.

H. The way you're describing it makes me think that .contents
still belongs in the image-preparation stage. Maybe fold the relevant
bits of code into your script?

cheers,


m
-- 
 martin.langh...@gmail.com
 mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect
 - ask interesting questions
 - don't get distracted with shiny stuff  - working code first
 - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff
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Re: [Server-devel] XS-rsync: automatic .contents creation

2009-02-24 Thread Ties Stuij
On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 8:06 AM, Martin Langhoff
 wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 4:12 AM, Daniel Drake  wrote:
>> If the XS shipped olpc-contents
>> (http://xs-dev.laptop.org/~cscott/repos/joyride/olpc-contents-2.5-1.i386.rpm)
>> then it would be easy to make XS-rsync be able to generate the
>> .contents file automatically from the .tar.bz2 tree file.
>
> Interesting idea. Not sure I understand it fully. It sounds to me like
> it'd be useful to wrap up content created or aggregated "online" on
> the XS (using Moodle, for example) -- content that you want to bundle
> up for download to the XOs.

Yes, I'd also like this included. Martin, my guess is you're confusing
concepts. The .contents or .toc file is used when updating or flashing
an XO image, for example by olpc-update to verify the stuff that's now
on the XO is the stuff that's expected. Or perhaps you're forseeing
other uses.

The way to create a .contents file right now is damn right dirty. You
basically chroot into the fs tree of an XO on the server and use the
contents manifest builder which is present in every standard XO.
That's what we're doing now in any case, and that's what Pilgrim does.
If one can believe the Pilgrim inline documentation, this was done
this way because Python 2.5 (often?) wasn't available on the servers
at the time. And I'm just lazy.

/Ties

> I'm not sure that it'd help with the backups/restore workflow. AFAIK,
> a content bundle will appear as one entry in your journal if it's
> able to unpack into separate entries in your Journal, then you're hit
> gold with your thinking.
>
>> Is it possible to include that RPM, and would such patches be considered?
>
> Anything that is useful in deployments I'm happy to include :-) - just
> need to flesh out how it's useful to more/most rather than a bespoke
> trick.
>
> Can you flesh out the use cases a bit more?
>
> cheers,
>
>
>
> m
> --
>  martin.langh...@gmail.com
>  mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect
>  - ask interesting questions
>  - don't get distracted with shiny stuff  - working code first
>  - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff
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Re: [Server-devel] XS-rsync: automatic .contents creation

2009-02-23 Thread Martin Langhoff
On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 4:12 AM, Daniel Drake  wrote:
> If the XS shipped olpc-contents
> (http://xs-dev.laptop.org/~cscott/repos/joyride/olpc-contents-2.5-1.i386.rpm)
> then it would be easy to make XS-rsync be able to generate the
> .contents file automatically from the .tar.bz2 tree file.

Interesting idea. Not sure I understand it fully. It sounds to me like
it'd be useful to wrap up content created or aggregated "online" on
the XS (using Moodle, for example) -- content that you want to bundle
up for download to the XOs.

I'm not sure that it'd help with the backups/restore workflow. AFAIK,
a content bundle will appear as one entry in your journal if it's
able to unpack into separate entries in your Journal, then you're hit
gold with your thinking.

> Is it possible to include that RPM, and would such patches be considered?

Anything that is useful in deployments I'm happy to include :-) - just
need to flesh out how it's useful to more/most rather than a bespoke
trick.

Can you flesh out the use cases a bit more?

cheers,



m
-- 
 martin.langh...@gmail.com
 mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect
 - ask interesting questions
 - don't get distracted with shiny stuff  - working code first
 - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff
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